We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
The conceptual basis of tort law
The aim of this Part is to explain the main features of tort law as a system for compensating for personal injuries and death, and to examine its main theoretical defects as a compensation mechanism. We will focus on tort law because most claims for damages for personal injuries and death are ‘made in’ tort; although occasionally such a claim may be ‘made in’ contract or based on some statutory cause of action. The boundaries of a legal subject are not set by divine prescript but by the custom of lawyers. Tort law as a separate legal subject is largely a product of the systematizing activities of academic lawyers in the nineteenth century. This body of law deals with a variety of social and economic problems that may be classified in a number of different ways, for instance, by looking at the interest of the person who complains of some injury: are they complaining about deprivation of liberty; injury to their person or feelings; damage to property, or the invasion of land; damage to reputation or invasion of privacy; injury to relations between members of a family; damage to trade or business? Alternatively, problems may be looked at in terms of the cause of the injury: who caused it; was it caused intentionally, maliciously, negligently or without ‘fault’ on the part of anyone; did the injured person play a part in causing the injuries?
A third way of classifying problems is according to the relationship between the claimant and the defendant.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
