Note: we have combined the supplementary materials and exercises on these two chapters in this Appendix because both make substantial reference to the House of Lords' decision in Donoghue v. Stevenson [1932] AC 562

Chapter 9 Reading cases

Donoghue v. Stevenson [1932] AC 562

Introduction

Donoghue v. Stevenson is one of the most famous cases in the common law. It is frequently used to illustrate points about matters that fall within the compass of this book. It is thus a useful link with the existing literature on a number of topics. It also provides a good illustration of many other relevant points to which less attention has been paid in the past. Because of pressure of space, we have not been able to reproduce the two speeches of Lord Buckmaster and Lord Atkin in their entirety. We have selected certain passages from the report, which are extensively referred to, especially in Chapters 9 and 11, in order to illustrate at this stage some of the fundamental aspects of rules extracted from judicial decisions, notably the notion of a ‘ladder of abstraction’ and techniques for handling precedents.

By using the link here readers can access extracts from the law report of Donoghue v. Stevenson, in particular from the speeches of Lords Atkin and Buckmaster. It is important that you study the extracts closely; in particular, compare the level of generality at which the facts, the issue and the decision of the case are stated in the different extracts.