Prof Emmanuel Voyiakis

Tim Liau, Nick Sage, Charlie Webb

This course is compulsory on the BA in Anthropology and Law and LLB in Laws. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

One person’s carelessness causes another to suffer a broken leg, damage to their car, or a financial loss. Someone plays music too loudly all through the night, disturbing their neighbours’ sleep. One person defames another, or touches their body without their consent. These are examples of torts. Tort law tells us when the person who has suffered injury has a civil right to require the injurer to make repair. Our course examines the fundamental principles and functions of tort law; the general tort of negligence and its application in specific settings (e.g. actions of public authorities, occupiers’ liability); the distinction between negligence and strict liability; liability for defective products; defamation; the land-related torts; the main economic torts; the kinds of injury that tort law deems worthy of compensation (especially the complex position with regard to psychiatric and economic harm); and the kinds of remedy that it provides to claimants.

16 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the AT. 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the WT.

The course is delivered through a combination of weekly two-hour lectures and weekly one-hour classs over the Autumn and Winter terms. The course includes a reading week in Weeks 6 of Autumn Term and Winter Term.

One piece of coursework per term.

• Witting Ch., Street on Torts
• McBride N. – Bagshaw R., Tort Law
• Lunney M. – Oliphant K., Tort Law: Text and Materials
• Goudkamp J. – Nolan D., Winfield & Jolowicz on Tort
• Stevens R., Torts and Rights

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the spring exam period.