In 1995, the Rockefeller Foundation sponsored a conference to look at public and private sector collaboration in the field of contraceptive research and development, and to make recommendations for reducing constraints and promoting this partnership. One recommendation of this conference was to convene a subsequent conference to review experiences in liability and litigation and to compare different solutions in laws and regulations in the United States, Europe, and other countries.

The proposed meeting was convened in October 1996, organized under the leadership of the New York University School of Law Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program. Participants were from Europe and the United States and brought with them a wide range of experience and expertise. The participants included: trial lawyers from both the plaintiff’s bar and defendant’s bar; in-house corporate counsel of major European and United States corporations involved in product liability issues; professors of tort law from the United States, United Kingdom and Sweden; legislative assistants to United States Senators concerned with tort reform; and, the general counsel of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Several discussion papers were distributed in advance and served as the basis of the conference agenda. These papers are presented in this special issue of the N.Y. U. Review of Law & Social Change. This introduction summarizes key points presented in the conference sessions.