Law of Tort and Civil Wrongs
Core concepts
Negligence dominates: duty of care, breach, causation, and remoteness. Know the neighbour principle, the Caparo three-stage test, and established duty categories. Professional negligence, occupiers' liability, employers' liability, and vicarious liability require separate treatment. Study nuisance, trespass, defamation, and strict liability. Defences include contributory negligence, volenti non fit iniuria, illegality, and limitation.
Traps
Questions test the difference between duty and breach. Causation has two limbs: factual (but-for) and legal (remoteness). The thin-skull rule applies to extent, not kind, of damage. Pure economic loss and psychiatric injury have restrictive rules. Vicarious liability requires a relationship and a close connection between the tort and the employment.
Worked example
A driver speeds and injures a pedestrian who has a rare bone condition. Breach is shown by the standard of the reasonable driver; factual causation by the but-for test; remoteness by whether injury was reasonably foreseeable. The thin-skull rule makes the defendant liable for the full extent of the injury.
Rule of thumb
Work through duty, breach, causation, remoteness, defences, and remedy in sequence. Do not skip the standard of care or the but-for test.