Drunk Others

Abstract

This chapter explores the responsibilities of sober people for intoxicated people. It first explores general duties created by relationships and employment law. It then examines responsibilities in two specific contexts: university tragedies in which students, often because of peer pressure, die from alcohol poisoning, and insurance cases in which intoxicated people or their heirs sue their insurers for damages incurred while drunk. In general, absent extreme circumstances, courts place liability with the intoxicated and not people around them. Although some of these outcomes might be attributable to specific legal doctrines or facts, the cases nevertheless stand in contrast with social science literature that finds that people in Japan tend to place responsibility for behavior with groups and circumstances, not individuals.