Street on Torts

Citation

Witting, C. (2018). Street on Torts (15th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The fifteenth edition has twenty-six chapters. They run from an overview of tort law, through negligence in detail, to the intentional torts, economic torts, strict-liability torts, defamation and privacy, misuse of process and public powers, and finally vicarious liability, capacity and remedies. The sections below follow the contents list and group chapters by subject.

Chapter 1: Overview of tort law

Defines tort, gives a brief history, identifies the rights and interests tort law protects, and introduces theoretical perspectives on it.

Chapters 2–5: Duty of care

Chapter 2 sets out the foundational principles and how the duty of care emerged. Chapter 3 deals with bodily injury and psychiatric illness, including harm to pregnancy and birth. Chapter 4 covers property damage and purely financial loss, with the relationship between tort and contract. Chapter 5 considers the duty of care of public authorities, including justiciability.

Chapters 6–8: Breach of duty; Causation and remoteness; Defences to negligence

Chapter 6 explains the standard of care, factors that set it, professional negligence and the proof of breach. Chapter 7 covers causation in fact and in law, new intervening causes and remoteness of damage. Chapter 8 covers contributory negligence, voluntary assumption of risk, exclusion or limitation of liability and the illegality defence.

Chapter 9: Liability for defective premises and structures

Deals with occupiers' liability and the liability of non-occupiers.

Chapters 10–13: Trespass and interference

Chapter 10 covers trespass to the person and related torts: battery, assault, intentional infliction of harm, protection from harassment and false imprisonment. Chapter 11 deals with wrongful interference with goods, including trespass to goods and conversion. Chapter 12 covers trespass to land. Chapter 13 looks at defences to intentional torts against the person or property.

Chapters 14–15: False representations; The general 'economic' torts

Chapter 14 covers deceit, passing off and malicious falsehood. Chapter 15 covers inducing breach of contract, causing loss by unlawful means, and lawful-means and unlawful-means conspiracy.

Chapters 16–19: Product liability; Nuisance; The rule in Rylands v Fletcher; Breach of statutory duty

Chapter 16 sets out the strict liability regime for defective products alongside common law developments. Chapter 17 covers private and public nuisance, including who can sue and be sued, defences and remedies. Chapter 18 covers the rule in Rylands v Fletcher and its relationship with nuisance. Chapter 19 covers breach of statutory duty.

Chapters 20–22: Defamation; Privacy

Chapter 20 deals with the foundational principles of defamation, including the distinction between libel and slander. Chapter 21 deals with defences and remedies in defamation, including truth, honest opinion, public interest and privilege. Chapter 22 examines privacy actions in tort.

Chapters 23–26: Misuse of process and public powers; Vicarious liability; Capacity and parties; Remedies

Chapter 23 covers malicious prosecution, abuse of process and misfeasance in public office. Chapter 24 deals with vicarious liability. Chapter 25 considers capacity and parties, including the Crown, companies, children and joint tortfeasors. Chapter 26 covers remedies.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–9: Negligence

• Duty of care: the requirement that the defendant owe the claimant a legal duty, treated in four chapters according to the type of harm and defendant.
• Breach, causation and remoteness: the standard of care, whether the breach caused the damage, and whether the damage is too remote.
• Contributory negligence: a defence that reduces damages because the claimant contributed to the harm.

Chapters 10–19: Intentional, economic and strict-liability torts

• Trespass and conversion: direct interference with the person, land or goods.
• Economic torts: deceit, passing off, inducing breach of contract and conspiracy.
• Nuisance and Rylands v Fletcher: liability for interference with the use of land.

Chapters 20–26: Reputation, privacy, parties and remedies

• Defamation: protection of reputation, with libel and slander and a set of defences.
• Vicarious liability: responsibility for torts committed by another.
• Remedies: damages and other relief in tort.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Wide coverage in a single volume. The 26 chapters take in negligence, trespass, economic torts, nuisance, defamation, privacy, misuse of process and remedies, so one book can support a full tort course.
• Detailed negligence treatment. Duty of care is spread across four chapters by type of harm, and public authorities have their own chapter. Each type of claim therefore gets focused treatment.
• Clear division by interest protected. Chapters group torts by the interest invaded (the person, goods, land, economic interests, reputation, privacy), which helps students see why different rules exist.
• Includes current areas. Privacy actions in tort and misuse of public powers have their own chapters, and the book is revised regularly, being in its fifteenth edition.

Limitations

• A reference-style text. The chapter-per-topic layout and doctrinal detail suit looking up a point more than reading from cover to cover, and it can overwhelm a first-time reader.
• Doctrine over theory. Theoretical perspectives are introduced in Chapter 1, but the book gives most space to the rules and cases. For arguments about the purposes of tort, a theory monograph is a better choice.
• Edition-specific. It was published in 2018; later developments in negligence, defamation and privacy are not included, and a newer edition should be checked where the law has moved.

Where It Fits in the Course

Among the course books, Horsey and Rackley's Tort Law and McBride and Bagshaw's Tort Law are course textbooks that explain the principles through leading cases; Tort Law: Text and Materials combines text with extracts. Markesinis and Deakin's Tort Law and Winfield and Jolowicz on Tort are larger and more detailed treatments. Atiyah's Accidents, Compensation and the Law takes a contextual view of compensation systems, Torts and Rights argues that tort is a law of rights, and Gatley on Libel and Slander is a specialist work on defamation.

Street on Torts sits with the detailed textbooks. It is a good main text for a course that covers the whole of tort law, and a place to go for detail on a particular tort after reading a shorter introduction.

How to Use This Book

The book is for law students studying tort at undergraduate level.

Start with Chapter 1 and Chapters 2–8, which are the core of negligence and the base for the rest of the course. Then add the torts your syllabus covers; Chapters 10–13 for trespass, 17–19 for nuisance and strict liability, and 20–22 for defamation and privacy. Chapters 24–26 on vicarious liability, parties and remedies apply across the subject and are best read near the end.

Read the leading cases that each chapter cites, and use the book to check the detailed rules after you have the framework. Check recent decisions for any area you are examined on.