Tort Law: Text and Materials

Abstract

In this new edition, we remain committed to the aims set out in the preface to the first: to produce a stimulating resource for use in the teaching of tort law and a work worthy of scholarly attention. The years since the last edition have seen some significant developments. The Defamation Act 2013 effects substantial reforms to the law of libel and slander; though the Act only received Royal Assent on 25 April 2013, it was possible to make some last-minute amendments to the text to reflect changes made to the Bill as it passed through Parliament and reached the statute book. The text also considers the ramifications for tort law of the Leveson Report into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press (published in November 2012). At the time of writing, the process of implementing the reforms proposed in the Jackson Report on Civil Litigation Costs was still ongoing, though nearing completion. In relation to the law of causation, the Supreme Court in its 'Sienkiewicz' decision foreshadowed a retreat from earlier authority that allowed the relaxation of the ordinary rules of causation in industrial disease cases. And in the law of private nuisance the effect of planning and regulatory approvals has been reconsidered with the hint (but only a hint) that such approvals may play a greater role in the future than they have in the past. These and many other recent developments are fully discussed in this fifth edition of our text, in which we have endeavoured to state the law as of 1 March 2013, though it was also possible to make selective reference to a few matters arising subsequently.