Tensioni e funzioni dei punitive damages negli Stati Uniti d’America. La controversa traiettoria dell’istituto nell’esperienza che lo ha reso celebre

The analysis of punitive damages emerges as a particularly effective lens through which to understand the distinctive factors of the U.S. legal experience, where this remedy has reached its fullest expression, offering the observer renewed insights and perspectives on the dynamics that govern it. The analysis aims to identify the underlying reasons that have made the U.S. model of punitive damages perhaps a unique and unrepeatable phenomenon, directing comparative attention to the specific features that have fostered its development and longevity within that legal system. It will be observed how the remedy of punitive damages – sometimes perceived as an arbitrary instrument in the hands of one political force or another – has in fact undergone significant reconsideration and restraint in response to bipartisan pressures. Today, access to punitive damages appears to have been significantly curtailed in the United States, in part due to a narrative permeated by sharp and persistent criticism that seems to have grown particularly intense precisely at the moment when the remedy became more accessible and widely known. However, although undoubtedly controversial and far from being unproblematic, punitive damages might ultimately function as a private-law instrument capable of mitigating distortions and abuses of power. This is particularly significant considering some shortcomings in social justice, which are not being addressed through coherent policies, within a context dominated by market dynamics and lacking adequate protection mechanisms from its functioning at both the state and federal levels.