Tort Law: Challenging Orthodoxy

by Stephen G.A. Pitel, Jason W Neyers, Erika Chamberlain

Overview

In this book leading scholars from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia challenge established common law rules and suggest new approaches to both old and emerging problems in tort law. Some of the chapters consider broad issues such as the importance of flexibility over certainty in tort law, connections between tort law and human flourishing and the indirect effects of changes in tort law. Other chapters engage more specific topics including the role of vindication in tort law, the relationship between criminal law and tort law, the use of epidemiological evidence in analysing causation, accessory liability in tort law, the role of malice in intentional torts and the role of statutes in tort law. They propose new approaches to contributory negligence, emotional distress, loss of a chance, damages for nuisance, the tort of conspiracy and vicarious liability.

The chapters in this book were originally presented at the Sixth Biennial Conference on the Law of Obligations at Western University in London, Ontario in July 2012. They will be highly useful to lawyers, judges and scholars across the common law world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849464710
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/11/2013
Pages:	516
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.12(d)

About the Author

Stephen GA Pitel, BA, LLB, LLM, PhD, is a Professor of Law and Goodmans LLP Faculty Fellow in Legal Ethics at Western University.
Jason W Neyers, BA, LLB, MST, is a Professor of Law at Western University.
Erika Chamberlain, LLB, PhD is an Associate Professor of Law and Associate Dean (Academic) at Western University.

Table of Contents

1. Against Certainty in Tort Law
Ken Oliphant
2. Tort Law and Human Flourishing
Nicholas J McBride
3. Private and Public: The Mixed Concept of Vindication in Torts and Private Law
Kit Barker
4. 'We Do This in the Criminal Law and That in the Law of Tort': A New Fusion Debate
Graham Virgo
5. Challenging the Orthodoxy of Crime's Precedence over Tort: Suspending a Tort Claim Where a Crime May Exist
Matthew Dyson
6. Legislative Challenges to Orthodoxy
James Lee
7. Statutes and Civil Liability in the Commonwealth and the United States: A Comparative Critique
Neil Foster
8. The 'Doubles the Risk' Test for Causation and Other Related Judicial Misconceptions about Epidemiology
Claire McIvor
9. Rationalising Loss of a Chance in Tort
Sandy Steel
10. When is Emotional Distress Harm?
Gregory C Keating
11. Rethinking Contributory Negligence
James Goudkamp
12. Nuisance Law and Damages in Lieu of an Injunction: Challenging the Orthodoxy of the Shelfer Criteria
Mark L Wilde
13. The Tort of Conspiracy as a Can of Worms
Hazel Carty
14. Aid, Abet, Counsel or Procure?
Paul S Davies
15. 'That Unhappy Expression': Malice at the Margins
Elspeth Reid
16. Dissociating the Two Forms of So-Called 'Vicarious Liability'
Christine Beuermann