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75 Temp. L. Rev 231 (2002)
From Baseball Parks to the Public Arena: Assumption of the Risk in Tort Law and Constitutional Libel Law

handle is hein.journals/temple75 and id is 241 raw text is: FROM BASEBALL PARKS TO THE PUBLIC ARENA: ASSUMPTION OF THE RISK IN TORT LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBEL LAW By Susan M. Gilles* I. IN TR O D U CT IO N ..................................................................................................... 232 II. ASSUMPTION OF THE RISK IN TORT LAW - A BRIEF REVIEW ......... 234 III. ASSUMPTION OF THE RISK IN CONSTITUTIONAL LIBEL L A W .......................................................................................................................... 237 A . The E arly C ases ................................................................................................... 237 B. The Rosenbloom/Gertz Decisions ..................................................................... 239 C. What Does the Court Mean By Assumption of the Risk? ................................ 242 D. Analogies to Tort Law and Primary Assumption of the Risk ......................... 245 IV. TESTING FOR PUBLIC PLANTIFFS: A SECOND ROLE AND A SECOND MEANING FOR ASSUMPTION OF THE RISK IN L IB E L L A W ............................................................................................................. 248 A. Identifying Public Officials, All-Purpose Public Figures, and Involuntary Public Figures ................................................................................. 249 B. Identifying Limited Public Figures: The Origin of a Second Meaning of Assumption of the Risk in Libel Law ........................................................... 252 C. A nalogy to Tort Law ........................................................................................... 260 V. LESSONS FROM TORT LAW .............................................................................. 262 A. Explaining the Court's Jurisprudence ............................................................... 262 1. Explaining the Court's Adoption of Differing Tests for Public Officials, All-Purpose Public Figures, and Limited Public F ig u res ............................................................................................................. 262 2. Explaining the Limited Application of Secondary Assumption ............ 264 3. Explaining the Involuntary Public Figure ................................................ 265 B. Suggestions from Tort Law: When to Impose Primary Assumption of the R isk ? .......................................................................................................... 266 1. Traditional Answers From Tort Law ........................................................... 266 2. Primary Assumption as a Question of the Value of Defendant's A ctivities .......................................................................................................... 269 V I. C O N C L U SIO N ........................................................................................................ 270 * Professor of Law, Capital University Law School. LL.B.(Hons.), University of Glasgow; LL.M., Harvard Law School. I would like to thank Margaret Cordray, Daniel Kobil, James Beattie, Mark Strasser, and William Marshall for their valuable comments and suggestions; Shawn Beem, Anne Vogel and Trevor Clarke for their research assistance; and Capital University Law School for financial support.