FE-1 Law of Torts

It is aimed at graduates and other entrants who must pass the FE-1 entrance examinations before progressing towards qualification as a solicitor in Ireland. Tort is one of the separate subject papers, so candidates usually sit it alongside other FE-1 subjects rather than on its own.

No. This is an independent study page written for candidates searching for FE-1 tort materials. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by the Law Society of Ireland. Always treat the Law Society's own published syllabus and regulations as the authoritative statement of what is examinable.

Expect the core of Irish tort law: negligence and duty of care, professional and occupiers' liability, trespass to person, land and goods, nuisance, defamation, economic torts, vicarious liability, and the defences and remedies running through them. Questions reward issue-spotting and structured application of principle to facts rather than pure recall.

Tort is generally regarded as conceptually manageable because the doctrines interconnect, but the volume of case law and the need to apply principles precisely make it demanding under time pressure. Candidates who memorise without practising application tend to underperform relative to the effort they invested.

Build the framework first: duty, breach, causation, remoteness and defences for negligence, then move to the intentional torts, nuisance, defamation and vicarious liability. Only after the elements are secure should you drill past-paper style questions under timed conditions, because that is where most marks are actually won or lost.

Three recur. First, reciting a case name without extracting the principle it establishes. Second, answering the question you expected rather than the facts given, so key issues are never identified. Third, poor time allocation, leaving later questions thin. Practising full answers to a clock exposes all three before the exam does.

That depends on how many FE-1 subjects you are sitting in the same diet and how familiar you already are with civil wrongs. A workable approach is to spread tort across several weeks with regular short review sessions, rather than one intensive block, so the interconnected doctrines stay fresh.

Check the Law Society of Ireland website directly. This page does not state the number of questions, exam duration, pass mark, fee, retake rules or result validity, because those details must come from the Law Society's current regulations, which can change between sittings.