All of our tort laws are based on this premise, and there is a vast system of personal injury lawyers, insurance companies, and courts that attempts to redress the harm that people incur from accidents, corporate malfeasance, and other suffering that can be traced to parties that are liable. As Boston University law professor Keith Hylton has noted, “Slavery involves some obvious torts, such as assault and battery, conversion, and wrongful confinement. But he also contends that after enough time has passed “tort doctrine shuts the door on compensation claims based on old and distant injuries.”