Principles of Tort Law

There are few areas of the law which are as rewarding to study and have as practical an impact on our daily lives as, to borrow from Professor Mulheron, the ‘motley bunch of causes of action which fall within English Tort Law!’ Not only does detailed study provide an in-depth insight into the development of the common law and of the incremental, precedent-based, common law method in action, it also raises challenging questions of principle. Questions concerning the role that tort law plays in our legal system and wider society, the extent to which the law should impose liability for harm on individuals and the circumstances when it should do so, whether it is underpinned by an overarching principle or by a variety of principles, remain matters of interest and debate. And from a practical perspective, the boundaries of tort law help shape the contours of everyday life. Whether we consider the steps manufacturers must take to ensure that their products are safe for sale or – as in Donoghue v Stevenson – consumption, the steps that professionals, such as doctors or lawyers, must take to treat their patients or advise their clients appropriately, or that employers must take to secure the safety of their workers, the law of tort provides the framework.

In this new book, Principles of Tort Law, Professor Mulheron, drawing on her extensive experience of the field both in practice in Australia and teaching tort law at Queen Mary University of London, provides a clear, detailed and challenging account of the law of tort. By utilising the method taken by the American Law Institute in its famous Restatements of the Law of Tort – statement of principle followed by detailed exegesis drawing on relevant case law, statutory provision and, where relevant, comparative jurisprudence – she presents a meticulous analysis in a thoroughly accessible manner. This work is a most welcome contribution to the field, one that will be of great benefit to students, practitioners, academics and judges and to anyone interested in gaining a proper understanding of the fundamental nature of this central part of the law. I cannot commend it highly enough.