Background

David Owen is the Carolina Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of South Carolina where he was the director of the Office of Tort Law Studies and taught courses and seminars on Tort Law, Tort Theory, and Products Liability Law. Prior to teaching, Owen received degrees in economics (Wharton) and law from the University of Pennsylvania, was law clerk to Chief Justice Kenison of New Hampshire, and practiced law in Denver at Holland & Hart. In addition to South Carolina Law, Owen has taught at the universities of Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, and Texas; Oxford University, England; Santa Anna University, Pisa, Italy; and the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.

Owen has authored numerous journal articles and authored, co-authored, and edited various books including a hornbook/treatise, Products Liability Law (West, 4th ed. 2022); an abridged account in Products Liability in a Nutshell (West, 10th ed. 2023); a casebook, Products Liability and Safety (Foundation Press, 8th ed. 2020); a products liability treatise, Owen & Davis on Products Liability (4 volumes, Thomson Reuters, 4th ed. 2014); a theoretical work, Philosophical Foundations of Tort Law (Oxford Univ. Press, ed. 1995); and Prosser & Keeton on Tort Law (West 1984).

He has advised Congress, state legislatures, the British and Scottish Law Commissions, and the European Union on various products liability and tort law matters. He was an adviser to the American Law Institute for the Restatement (Third) of Torts and was the ALI’s editorial adviser for the Restatement of Products Liability.

Owen was the 2022 recipient of the Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award from the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section.

Scholarship

• Products Liability Law (West hornbook, 4th ed. 2022)
• Products Liability and Safety — Cases and Materials (Foundation Press, 8th ed. 2020, with M. Davis)
• Products Liability in a Nutshell (West 10th ed. 2023)
• Philosophical Foundations of Tort Law (Oxford Univ. Press, Clarendon, ed., 1995)
• Prosser & Keeton on the Law of Torts (West hornbook, 5th ed. 1984) (with W. Prosser, W.P. Keeton, D. Dobbs, & R. Keeton)