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Introduction to Tort
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Notes from an introductory lecture to tort law
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Tort LectureWeek 1
➔ Tort deals with everyday situations, such as:
◆ If a motorist knocks you off your bicycle; can you sue him for ‘damages’ (monetary
compensation)?
◆ If you slip on some spilled milk in a supermarket and injure your back, can you sue the
supermarket for your injury?
◆ Your neighbours keep making an intolerable noise; can you get a court to stop them
(injunction)?
➔ A ‘tort’ is a civil wrong for which the law provides a remedy
◆ Concerned with situations where individuals seek to claim compensation usually through
damages or by some other means for an injury that they have suffered either to themselves
or to their property
WHAT IS TORT LAW?
➔ It derives from the French for ‘wrong’
➔ If the courts would accept your claim, we say that the defendants are ‘tort-feasors’ and ‘liable’ to you
➔ The law of tort is about when liability exists
➔ A tort is an action which renders the defendant liable unless he has some defence
➔ Probably over 70 torts
➔ Law of tort is primarily about compensating people for harm, criminal law is primarily about punishing
people for wrongdoing
➔ Tort law and contract law are the two branches of the law of obligations
◆ Law of torts concerns involuntary obligations
◆ Contract law is voluntary obligations
➔ Tort law appears to be a collection of self-contained wrongs
➔ Peter Cane’s suggestion: ‘Tort law is a system of precepts about how people may ought or ought not
to behave in dealings with others’
➔ Tort law is a collection of legal rules which tell us how we ought to behave in certain situations. These
legal rules are imposed upon us by the state rather than those in which we have agreed upon with
another person, for instance through contract law.
WHAT INTERESTS DOES TORT LAW PROTECT?
➔ Physical injury
➔ Death
➔ Psychiatric injury
➔ Damage to property
➔ Financial losses
➔ We may also see situs where there is no damage or harm but there has been interference with an
individual’s rights
➔ The right to
◆ bodily freedom and autonomy
◆ privacy
◆ reputation
◆ use and enjoyment of property
➔ Some torts exist and are defined only to protect a single interest
◆ Defamation protects a person’s reputation
◆ Nuisance protects our interests in enjoying our own land
➔ The tort of negligence offers protection to all our legally recognised rights and interests
◆ Even for a single harm or injury, there will be more than one tort upon which a claim may be
founded
➔ Tort law has mainly two roles, backward looking and forward looking
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