미국 제조물책임에 관한 연구* - 미국 제조물 보통법전집을 중심으로 -

The Restatement (Second) of Torts is a compilation of the major cases recognized in U.S. common law, beginning with the first edition, and continuing with the second edition, in article form. Whereas the second Restatement of Torts focused on present situations, the third Restatements of Torts have looked future situations. The Restatement (Third) of Torts project began with the Restatement (Third) of Products Liability. As of January 2024, there are a total of nine Restatement (Third) of Torts published by the American Law Institute. Among them, four projects have been complete. These are Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability (1998), Restatement (Third) of Torts: Apportionment of Liability (2000), Restatement (Third) of Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm (2010), Restatement (Third) of Torts: Liability for Economic Harm (2020). The influence of American law in product liability have relatively been large. Political, diplomatic, and economic factors, as well as the fact that American “products” were exported to many other countries, with the product law. Our current product liability laws have also been heavily influenced by U.S. product liability law. In this article, this author has introduced and reviewed the provisions of the U.S. Restatement (Third) of Product Liability. In the meanwhile, this author, has highlighted major key issues of the Restatement. This article consists of four parts. In Part II, this author has presented a big-picture view of the structure of the Restatement (Third) of Product Liability. In Part III, this author has explained each article of of the four chapters in the Restatement (Third) of Product Liability. This author also has examined its backgrounds and illustrationd of the articles. In Part IV, this author has provided what implications of the Restatement (Third) of Product Liability to the current South Korean Product Liability Law.