FLK1 · SQE1 module
Tort Law
Negligence dominates the tort paper: duty, breach, causation and remoteness, tested through fact patterns that require you to apply the test rather than recite it.
Occupiers’ liability, vicarious liability and defences (contributory negligence, consent) are the recurring secondary patterns.
What this module covers
Every section of Tort Law, in the order the course teaches them. This is the whole syllabus for the module, not a selection. Open a section to read the topics inside it.
Negligence: The Three Elements2 topics
- Duty, breach and damage
- Damage as an essential element
Negligence: Duty of Care4 topics
- Established duties and the Robinson approach
- Novel duties and the three criteria
- Omissions and when a duty to act arises
- Scope of the duty
Negligence: Breach of Duty and Standard of Care9 topics
- The reasonable person standard
- Factors in weighing the risk
- Social value under the Compensation Act 2006
- The Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015
- Professionals: Bolam and Bolitho
- Warning of risks after Montgomery
- Child defendants
- Res ipsa loquitur
- Children undertaking adult activities
Negligence: Causation and Remoteness7 topics
- The but for test
- Material contribution
- Divisible and indivisible injury
- Successive injuries
- Intervening acts
- Remoteness and the foreseeable type of damage
- The egg-shell skull rule
Negligence: Defences5 topics
- Contributory negligence
- Volenti non fit injuria
- Illegality
- Excluding liability for negligence
- The closed list of general defences
Negligence: Pure Economic Loss3 topics
- The general rule against recovery
- The cost of a defective product
- Negligent misstatement and special relationships
Negligence: Psychiatric Harm4 topics
- A recognised psychiatric condition
- Primary victims
- Secondary victims and the Alcock control mechanisms
- Secondary victims: the position after Paul
Employers' Primary Liability4 topics
- Scope of the employer’s personal duty
- A non-delegable duty
- Defective equipment provided by the employer
- Common practice among other employers
Vicarious Liability5 topics
- What vicarious liability is
- Employee status and economic reality
- Relationships akin to employment
- The close connection test
- Independent contractors and non-delegable duties
Remedies for Personal Injury and Death8 topics
- The compensatory aim and mitigation
- Pecuniary losses and loss of earnings
- Non-pecuniary loss, special and general damages
- Survival of a cause of action on death
- Bereavement damages
- Loss of dependency
- The statutory list of dependants
- The heads of damage in outline
Occupiers' Liability to Visitors: OLA 19575 topics
- The common duty of care
- Child visitors and skilled visitors
- Warnings
- Faulty work by an independent contractor
- Exclusion of the duty and defences
Occupiers' Liability to Non-Visitors: OLA 19844 topics
- When a duty to a trespasser arises
- Content of the duty
- Discharge and defences
- Landlords and the Defective Premises Act 1972
Product Liability7 topics
- The manufacturer’s duty in negligence
- Fault, breach and damage in negligence
- Strict liability under the Consumer Protection Act 1987
- Who can be sued as producer
- Recoverable damage and its thresholds
- The six statutory defences
- Limitation under the 1987 Act
Private Nuisance5 topics
- Definition of private nuisance
- Who may sue and be sued
- Factors in unreasonableness
- Defences, and what is not a defence
- Injunction, damages and abatement
Public Nuisance1 topic
- Definition and standing
The Rule in Rylands v Fletcher3 topics
- Elements of the rule
- Strict liability, foreseeability and defences
- Standing to sue
Limitation Periods in Tort3 topics
- The general six-year period
- Personal injury and date of knowledge
- Claims for child sexual abuse
Breach of Statutory Duty (Distractor Recognition)3 topics
- Express civil claims, and health and safety
- Where the statute is silent
- Elements of the claim
Intentional Torts (Not in the SQE1 Tort Syllabus)2 topics
- Why intentional torts sit outside the syllabus
- The named defences to trespass to the person
A real question from this module
Answer it before you decide
FLK1 · Tort Law
Question
A council carries out a statutory inspection of a footbridge but fails to notice a defect that a competent inspection would have found. The bridge later gives way, injuring a pedestrian. The council argues that, even applying the modern approach to a novel duty of care, no duty arises on these facts. Which combination of elements must the pedestrian establish to show that a duty of care existed?