TORT: An introduction

Dr Mark Wilde
2016-17

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Core text books

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Teaching format and assessment

Note: Tort is a core subject

40 lectures (20 per term)
Autumn Term: Dr Mark Wilde (all)
Spring Term: Dr Mark Wilde (all)
8 Tutorials (4 per term)
1 Autumn term un-assessed essay
1 Spring term un-assessed essay (peer marked)
January test
Summer exam (100% of assessment): 3hr paper open book
and notes exam (4 questions from a choice of 8)

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Learning Resources

Lecture hand-outs
Legal Skills Guide
Textbooks
Journal Articles
Newspapers
Online resources

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Legal databases eg Westlaw, Lexisnexis

Other reputable websites
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What is Tort Law?

Consider the definition in the hand-out

Why is it difficult to arrive at a satisfactory definition?
What are the key features of tort?

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Duties imposed by law to avoid causing some form of loss

to another
Encompasses various types of wrongs
Tort subdivides into a series of specific torts
An aspect of civil law
Generally concerned with compensation
May be concurrent liability with other branches of law

Tort and other branches of law

Tort and the Criminal Law

Tort and Restitution

For most crimes there is a corresponding tort

E.g trespass to chattels corresponds with theft
Tort focuses on the claimants loss whereas Restitution
focuses on the defendants gain

Tort and Contract

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Duties in tort imposed by law whereas contractual duties

voluntarily assumed
However, areas may overlap
Henderson v Merrett Syndicates [1995] 2 AC 145
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Sources and Development

Forms of action

various writs designed to provide redress for specific types of

dispute;
abolished by Common Law Procedure Act 1852 and Judicature
Act 1872;
now all civil actions commenced by a single type of writ;
although, to some extent, the common law remains shaped in the
image of the forms of action

The expansion of actions in tort

Tort as an area of law: the first texts
The rise of negligence
Tort as a creature of the common law
Statutes

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Aims of tort and theoretical underpinnings

Consider the aims of tort identified by

Glanville Williams

Appeasement
Justice
Deterrence
Compensation

Tort or Torts

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Is there an overarching theory which links these

diverse types of liability?
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Damages, other remedies and forms of

compensation

Damages: the main objective in most tort actions

Insurance, eg:

Compensatory: an attempt to restore, insofar as is

possible, the status quo ante
Exemplary: contains a punitive element and only available
in very limited circumstances
Motor insurance
Employers liability insurance
Life assurance
Medical insurance

Social security

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Influences, challenges and reform

Fault, efficiency and justice

Insurance

Is justice denied by time, expense and the need to

prove fault (in negligence cases)?
Reducing the cost of justice under
the civil justice reforms
What is the relationship
between tort and insurance?

Human rights

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What is the relationship between tort and human

rights?
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Compensation culture?

Have the civil justice reforms gone

too far? Is it too easy to sue?
Does the civil justice system
encourage people to abrogate all
sense of personal responsibility?
Does it encourage the view that
misfortune must always result from
the fault of another?
Judicial attempts to stem the tide of
litigation
Tomlinson v Congleton Borough
Council [2004] 1 AC 46
Gorringe v Calderdale
Metropolitan BC [2004] 1 WLR
1057 at [2] (Lord Steyn)
Is it all just media hype?
Better Regulation Task Force,
Better Routes to Redress (2004)
K Williams, State of Fear: Britains
compensation culture reviewed
(2005) 25 LS 499

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