Category Archives: Tort
‘The Distinction Between a Principal’s Liability for Torts of an Independent Contractor with Respect to Inherently Dangerous Activities and Ultra-Hazardous Activities: An Explainer’
I gave this to my class today and thought it might be of interest to some readers. The principal can be held liable where the contractor’s performance involves an inherently dangerous activity. In the Majestic case, for example, the Parking Authority of the City of Paterson hired Toti Contracting to demolish a building adjacent to […]
‘Mentioning the Unmentionable Parts of Tort Law: Responding to Silence with Discourse’
Anita Bernstein, ‘Renewing Products Liability with Semen’, 73 DePaul Law Review 211 (2024). Of the tens of thousands of reported civil cases in Westlaw’s torts database, would it surprise you that a mere 34 opinions in the set use the word ‘vulva’? Even then, the term is often mentioned only as a quote from a […]
Victoria Evans, ‘Conversion and its future (reflecting on the Law Commission’s work on digital assets)’
ABSTRACT It is no great secret that conversion has always been a somewhat problematic and unpopular tort, and indeed it has often faced criticism and calls for reform. None more so than when questions arise about how conversion fits, or could adapt to fit, the modern world. This occurred in light of the OBG decision […]
Jonathan Brown, ‘Damnum is where one starts from? Questions to be asked in determining liability for negligence in Scots law’
ABSTRACT Scots law does not possess either a ‘law of tort’ or a ‘tort of negligence’. Instead, drawing on its institutional connection to Civil law, Scotland possesses a law of delict which forms a part of a broader ‘law of obligations’. This has, or ought to have, consequences for any analysis of liability for civil […]
Jodi Gardner, ‘Rethinking Risk-Taking: The Death of Volenti?’
ABSTRACT Volenti non fit injuria allows a negligent defendant to escape liability by showing that the claimant voluntarily and willingly accepted the risk in question. This article combines the theoretical limitations of the volenti defence with a case analysis of how its application has played out in the ‘real world’, and argues it is not […]
Haley Todd Newsome, ‘Advancing Tort Law for Climate Displacement Compensation’
ABSTRACT Climate change has already displaced people from their homes and is predicted to displace millions more in the coming decades. Involuntary climate-induced migration causes loss and damage before, during, and after the displacement. In this Note, I argue that the climate displaced should seek tort compensation from fossil fuel companies for this loss and […]
Alexander Waghorn, ‘Remoteness in the Supreme Court’
Armstead v Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Co Ltd [2024] UKSC 6; [2024] 2 W.L.R. 632 concerned facts that might have been lifted from an undergraduate examination. It has important lessons for anyone interested in the fundamentals of negligence. Ms Armstead suffered the misfortune of being involved in two traffic collisions, neither of which was […]
‘Surge in NHS clinical negligence claims raises concerns over quality of care, Darzi Report finds’
The increasing rate of clinical negligence claims is indicative of the poor state of the NHS in England, a damning government-commissioned review has concluded. Today’s report by surgeon and Labour former minister Lord Darzi includes a section devoted to clinical negligence and the worrying rise in claims, particularly in obstetrics … (more) [John Hyde, Law […]
Alexander Lemann, ‘The Opioid Litigation’s Challenge for Tort Theory’
ABSTRACT Tort litigation related to the opioid crisis has spanned several decades and led to tens of billions of dollars in liability. While several important opioid cases remain pending in various stages of litigation, it is now possible to sketch a basic outline of the results: individual plaintiffs sued opioid manufacturers on a variety of […]
‘AI Misfeasance or AI Malpractice?’
Bryan H Choi, ‘AI Malpractice’, 73 DePaul Law Review 301 (2024). When a digital financial or medical advisor gives bad advice, when ChatGPT confabulates that a law professor committed sexual assault, when an autonomous weapon system takes action that looks like a war crime – who should be held liable? Bryan Choi’s excellent ‘AI Malpractice’ […]