ABSTRACT
This paper examines the extent to which private nuisance provides for the vindication and protection of economic interests in the laws of England and Wales and Australia. This topic is under-researched in that most claims focus on material harm to property and personal discomfort. The typical claimant/plaintiff, in student textbooks at least, is the harassed householder unable to sleep due to noise or whose life is blighted by toxic fumes from a neighbouring property. However, as in all areas of tort, the question of protection of economic interests needs to be addressed. Businesses and developers will not only be the defendant pursued by the harassed householder, but also, at times, the claimant/plaintiff bringing an action due to interference with their use and enjoyment of land leading to loss of profit. In examining comparatively the core principles arising in private nuisance in English and Australian, law, this paper will provide a clearer picture of the extent to which economic interests are protected in the common law. It will inevitably also consider the extent to which we see common approaches or divergence. As we shall see, private nuisance is a tort where the facts of the case are particularly important. Attention should be paid, therefore, to the extent cases arising in a rural, agrarian context and those arising in urban, built-up areas where the need for ‘give and take’ becomes a fact of daily life reflect different approaches to the role of private nuisance in our society.
Giliker, Paula, Economic Wrongs and Private Nuisance: A Common Law Perspective (December 23, 2021) in J Eldridge, M Douglas and C Carr (eds), Economic Wrongs (Hart, 2021) pp 143-164.
First posted 2022-02-24 11:00:15
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