The circumstances in English tort law in which one person may be held non-vicariously liable for the acts of another have been quietly expanding in recent years, to the point where third party liability can now be said to constitute a distinct category of tortuous liability. As an obviously exceptional form of liability, it is subject to special restrictions designed to strictly limit the specific instances in which it will be recognised. Unfortunately, however, the exact substance and scope of these restrictions are far from clear, for there has been a systematic failure on the part of the courts in deciding third-party liability actions to articulate with any precision the grounds upon which their findings have been based. As a result, the law on third party tort liability has developed on an ad hoc basis and has become confused and incoherent. The specific purpose of this thesis is thus to seek out the foundational principles governing the existing categories of liability in tort for the acts of third parties, with a view to identifying a coherent basis upon which such liability can develop in the future.

The Relevance of Fault in Determining Liability for Road Accidents: The French Experience

Liability in tort for the acts of third parties : a search for coherence

English law has demonstrated itself to be particularly hostile to the idea of holding parents tortiously liable for the acts of their children. It deals with allegations of parental negligence with a degree of leniency that, arguably, defies all rational justification. In advocating reform, the primary objective of this thesis is to put forward a proposal for a new regime of liability that obliges parents to take much greater legal responsibility for their children's conduct. The proposition set out is that English law has a lot to learn from the continental approach to parental liability. In seeking guidelines for change, the French system is singled out as a particularly good model for comparison. Over the years it has experimented with different forms of parental liability, and so its law in this respect is well developed, not to mention excellently documented. The French system offers two main options for reform: a regime of strict liability based on a rebuttable presumption of fault or a regime of vicarious liability. It is contended that, for present purposes, the former offers the more viable solution for a legal system that is notoriously resistant to the concept of no-fault liability. In adapting this French regime to suit English needs, the focus of this thesis is on the substantive legal issues involved. The normative feasibility of the proposed regime is established by demonstrating its consistency with the principles of English negligence law. This, in turn, is done by demonstrating the existence, in a typical parental liability action, of the elements of duty of care, breach of duty and both factual and legal causation.

Reforming the English law on parental liability: a comparison with the French experience.

https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8569&context=etd

The Relevance of Fault in Determining Liability for Road Accidents: The French Experience

Citations

Liability in tort for the acts of third parties : a search for coherence

Reforming the English law on parental liability: a comparison with the French experience.

Who pays for road violence? rethinking roads, cycling, and tort law

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