An American man has filled a long-lamented gap in the museum sector, and opened a museum dedicated to tort law.
Winsted, Connecticut is set to join a host of American towns, famous for random museums like the National Museum of Dentistry and the Vacuum Cleaner Museum, when 81 year old Ralph Nader opens America’s first tort law museum in the town later this year.
Nader, a consumer advocate and former third-party presidential candidate thinks the new museum is integral to American democracy.
“I’m constantly astounded how a country can go over 200 years and not have a law museum and still brag about being a country with a rule of law,’’ Nader said. “There are museums for major fruits, vegetables, garlic, every sport imaginable, lanterns, the most bizarre subjects you can imagine, and no law museum.”
The museum’s contents are unknown, however some sources have said they expect an exhibit devoted to tobacco litigation and a suspended Chevrolet Corvair revealing the car’s unsafe suspension, the Wall Street Journal reported.
While it may be hard to attract customers to such an unusual museum, Nader is confident that when people actually see the museum, they will appreciate it. The town historian disagrees.
“I don’t think people are going to get excited,” Milly Hudak said. “How many people, if you said to them, ‘There’s going to be a tort museum,’ they’ll say, ‘What’s a tort?’”
Richard Newman, a retired lawyer, will be the museum’s first director and while he has never been a curator, he shares Nader’s passion for tort law.
