In Public Nuisance, Linda Mullenix describes the landscape of 21st century mass tort litigation involving public harms – including lead paint, opioids, firearms, e-cigarettes, climate change, and environmental pollution – and the novel theory of public nuisance that lawyers and local governments have used to receive compensation from those who have created public nuisances. The book surveys conflicting judicial decisions rooted in common law and statutory interpretation and evaluates the competing arguments for and against the expansion of public nuisance law. Mullenix argues that that the development of public nuisance theory is part of the historical arc of mass tort litigation and suggests a middle approach to new public nuisance law, namely that we should embrace the common law and legislated public nuisance statutes.

‘Professor Linda Mullenix tells a compelling historical tale of the ‘new’ public nuisance law, tracing its beginnings in asbestos mass tort litigation to its current form in modern multi-district litigations over lead paint, opioids, firearms, and e-cigarettes. In an area rife with ideological disagreement, Mullenix cuts through the controversies and sets forth a well-reasoned ‘middle-ground’ approach, one that deftly combines the adaptive common law approach with statutory enactments grounded in democratic theory.’

Catherine M. Sharkey - Segal Family Professor of Regulatory Law and Policy, New York University School of Law; author of Public Nuisance as Modern Business Tort (70 DePaul Law Review 431 [2021])

‘A timely analysis of arguably the most significant development in tort law in recent years: the expansion of public nuisance doctrine to address a wide variety of mass claims, from opioids to guns to climate change. Texas Law Professor Linda Mullenix, whose scholarship encompasses both traditional doctrinal analysis and reports of developments ‘on the ground,’ turns her attention to the emergence of public nuisance doctrine as a tool for securing remediation and compensation for individuals, governments, and the public for harms stemming (primarily) from corporate actions. Deploying historical legal scholarship and contemporary case studies, Mullenix identifies the challenges the new litigation presents to trial and appellate courts, public attorneys general, and private entrepreneurial lawyers. An excellent resource for practitioners and jurists as well as law faculty teaching advanced courses in civil procedure and complex litigation.’

Deborah R. Hensler - Judge John W. Ford Professor of Dispute Resolution, Stanford Law School

‘This is a perceptive and insightful book about perhaps the most rapidly growing issue of complex litigation facing us today, written by THE national expert in the subject. It should become the Bible for anyone who toils in the exciting but frustrating field of public nuisance litigation.’

Martin H. Redish - Louis and Harriet Ancel Professor of Law and Public Policy, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law; author of Wholesale Justice: Constitutional Democracy and the Problem of the Class Action Lawsuit

‘Linda Mullenix’s Public Nuisance: The New Mass Tort Frontier is a must-read book for anyone interested in or practicing law in the tort field. The book traces the historical evolution of the concept of public nuisance and focuses on the expansion of public nuisance in a number of leading litigations, including lead paint, opioids, firearms, e-cigarettes, and climate change. It is both a scholarly and practical analysis of the implications of public nuisance claims today and in the future.’

Sheila Birnbaum - Co-leader of the Products Liability and Mass Tort Group, Dechert LLP

‘This is an essential, insightful, and engaging account of the rediscovery and development of public nuisance in American litigation. Don’t miss it!’

Elizabeth Cabraser - Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, Executive Committee and Plaintiffs’ Lead Negotiator, National Opiate Litigation; Executive Editor, The Law of Class Action: Fifty-State Survey 2023 (American Bar Association Class Action & Derivative Suits Committee)