Markesinis and Deakin's Tort Law

Citation

Deakin, S., & Adams, Z. (2019). Markesinis and Deakin's Tort Law (8th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The eighth edition runs to 912 pages and is arranged in eight parts. The publisher describes it as a general overview of the law with full discussion of the academic debates on all major topics, highlighting the relationship between common law, legislation and judicial policy, and adding comparative and economic perspectives and the socio-economic context of the subject. The part titles and their page ranges show where the weight lies: negligence and its special forms take about 260 pages, while liability for interference with the person is only about 30.

Part I: Setting the Scene (about 80 pages)

The opening part frames the subject before the doctrine begins, in keeping with the book's stated aim of placing tort in its socio-economic context. Read it for the framework that the later parts refer back to.

Part II: The Tort of Negligence (about 160 pages)

This is the core of the book. It takes the elements of negligence in turn: establishing liability in principle through the duty of care, liability for fault through breach, and liability for damage caused through causation and remoteness. Topics prominent in this part include liability for negligent misstatement (Hedley Byrne) and psychiatric injury.

Part III: Special Forms of Negligence (about 100 pages)

The part deals with the special areas into which negligence has been divided: liability connected with premises and occupiers, breach of statutory duty, and the liability of public and statutory bodies, including police, health authorities and local authorities, where questions of immunity and the relevance of the Human Rights Act arise.

Part IV: Interference with the Person (about 30 pages)

A short part on interference with the person.

Part V: Land, Chattels, and Intentional Interference with Economic Interests (about 115 pages)

The part covers interference with chattels, trespass to land, nuisance, and the torts protecting economic interests against intentional interference, where unlawful means and conspiracy are central concepts.

Part VI: Stricter Forms of Liability (about 135 pages)

The part collects the heads of liability that depart from fault-based negligence: strict liability, including the rule in Rylands v Fletcher, together with employers' liability and vicarious liability.

Part VII: Protection of Human Dignity in Private Law (about 120 pages)

The part treats the protection of reputation through defamation and injurious falsehood, and the protection of privacy.

Part VIII: Defences and Remedies (about 145 pages)

The final part covers the defences available to defendants, damages, and other remedies including multiple liabilities.

Key Concepts

Parts I–III: Negligence

• Duty of care: the threshold question of whether the law imposes an obligation to take care in the circumstances.
• Breach, causation and remoteness: the later elements through which fault, factual cause and the limits of responsibility are decided.
• Public authority liability: the special rules for liability of public and statutory bodies.

Parts IV–V: Intentional and Property Torts

• Trespass and nuisance: protection of land against direct and indirect interference.
• Economic torts: liability for intentional interference with business interests, including unlawful means.

Parts VI–VIII: Strict Liability, Dignity and Remedies

• Strict and vicarious liability: liability without proof of the defendant's own fault.
• Defamation and privacy: protection of reputation and private life.
• Damages and remedies: the means by which the law compensates, restrains or vindicates.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Wide scope. Eight parts cover negligence, intentional torts, property torts, strict liability, dignitary torts and remedies, which gives teachers a wide range of topics, as the publisher notes.
• Law in context. The authors aim to relate common law to legislation and judicial policy and add comparative and economic perspectives, which helps students who must write about the reasons behind the rules as well as the rules.
• Currency and range of authority. As the eighth edition it cites decisions of the UK Supreme Court, and its case tables include a separate list of cases from other jurisdictions.
• Good for reference. The separate tables of United Kingdom cases, cases from other jurisdictions, legislation and international instruments, plus an index, support its use as a reference.

Limitations

• Length. At 912 pages it is a large book; a first-year student will find more than a single module needs.
• Discussion alongside rules. The publisher says the book is both descriptive and reflective, so a student looking only for a concise statement of the rules will need to pick them out of the academic discussion.
• Dated by its edition. Published in 2019, it does not cover later cases and legislation, so check the current law on negligence and public authorities and on defamation.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within this course list, Markesinis and Deakin is a full-length textbook for the whole subject, with a comparative and economic dimension. For a gentler first course, Horsey and Rackley's Tort Law is written for students meeting the subject for the first time, and McBride's Tort Law and Witting's Street on Torts are other course texts of broadly comparable scope. Goudkamp and others' Winfield and Jolowicz on Tort is another comprehensive undergraduate text.

For specialised depth, Mullis and others' Gatley on Libel and Slander expands the defamation material in Part VII. Cane and Goudkamp's Atiyah's Accidents, Compensation and the Law and Stevens's Torts and Rights approach the subject from the wider compensation system and from a theory of rights, and are best read after the doctrine of this book or a similar text.

How to Use This Book

The book is for law students taking tort as a full-year or demanding module, and for those who want the academic debate as well as the rules. Familiarity with contract law and the English court system will help.

A suggested route:

• Core: Part II in full, Part III for occupiers, statutory duty and public bodies, and the sections of Part V on trespass to land and nuisance.
• Next: Part VI for strict liability and vicarious liability, which most courses examine, and Part VIII for defences and damages.
• Optional: Part IV (short), the economic torts in Part V and Part VII, according to the syllabus.

Read each part's discussion of policy alongside the cases it cites, and check the position against recent decisions, since the edition dates from 2019.