The Schizophrenia of Risk-Benefit Analysis in Design Defect Litigation

To employ a well-worn, but nevertheless appropriate cliche, it is a genuine honor to participate in the Vanderbilt Law Review\u27s memorial to Dean John Wade. Wade stands tall as a leading figure of legal academe in the twentieth century. While I have profited from many illuminating hours with his scholarship, I regret that my association with him personally was limited to one lengthy luncheon meeting, still vivid, despite the passage of many years. I still recall his kindliness and gentility, his dry, but very real sense of humor, his humility and vigilance in avoiding taking himself too seriously, his thoughtfulness and deliberation in making judgments, his care and rigor in the process, but always accompanied by an overarching civility. When I discovered the epigraph above-in a tribute penned by Wade himself---it reflected the impression I had formed of this great man. He loved trouthe, honour, fredon, and curteisie. Worthy and wys, yet meeke as a mayde seem to capture exactly the right image. Dean John Wade was a verray, parfit gentil knyght