Abstract: In A Theory of Tort Liability, Allan Beever identifies a lacuna in modern tort theory and aims to fill it. In his view, it is correct but insufficient to assert that a tort suit involves a plaintiff seeking to establish that the defendant wrongfully injured her, such that she is entitled to redress for the wrong. What’s missing is an explanation of tort law’s substance—of why courts have recognised particular torts defined in particular ways. Even if one accepts, as Beever does, that the wrongs of tort law track and vindicate rights, one still needs an account of which rights, and of why it protects them on the terms that it does.