Tort law is a compelling and dynamic area of law, affecting many aspects of individuals’ lives. A strong understanding of tort principles is important for legal practice, as lawyers may be required to represent clients in a range of tort disputes, from a physical altercation in a bar, to a fall in a supermarket or possibly the lowering of a client’s reputation through defamatory material posted on the internet. At its core, a tort is a civil wrong. Deriving from the Latin word tortum (‘wrong’), a tort is an act or omission that infringes upon the rights of individuals in society, allowing the aggrieved individual to seek a legal remedy.

From a historical context, the design and use of algorithms pre-dates the current proliferation of algorithms throughout society. For example, culminating in the Industrial Revolution, automated machines and tools have for centuries been assisting humans in performing physical tasks. Drills, engravers, weaving machines, and the like employed machines’ physical advantages to free human beings from repetitive physical labor. In a similar manner, algorithms are now taking on the decision-making and human supervisory control of systems which require human cognitive skills.