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Course Manual Law of Torts and Consumer Protection B.A./LL.B. Year 1
Course Manual Law of Torts and Consumer Protection B.A./LL.B. Year 1
Course Manual Law of Torts and Consumer Protection B.A./LL.B. Year 1
B.A./LL.B. Year 1
Course Instructors
Surabhi Shukla
Amitjyoti Sandhu
Charu Sharma
Weatherly A. Schwab
SEMESTER I
2014- 2015
PART I
1
Information on Law of Torts and Consumer Protection offered by Jindal Global Law School
The information provided herein is by the Course Coordinator. The following information
contains the official record of the details of the course.
Course Number:
Pre-requisites: None
Pre-cursors: N/A
The above information shall form part of the University database and may be uploaded to
the KOHA Library system and catalogued and may be distributed amongst other students.
PART II
Course Aims
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This course will instruct students in the basics of tort law. We will begin with a theoretical
background of torts and fundamental principles of liability. We will then cover the major
intentional torts (battery and assault), negligence, defamation, products liability, and trespass to
property. Students will also learn the affirmative defenses for all the above torts.
Course Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the semester, students should be able to identify and apply the elements of all the
major torts to hypothetical situations. They should also be able to think creatively from both the
plaintiff perspective (identifying the best avenues for relief) and from the defense perspective
(identifying which defenses are most likely to succeed).
Students should also develop an understanding of differences in tort law across common law
jurisdictions and how tort law is used to provide relief for victims of large-scale disasters.
LECTURE
Lectures will be interactive in nature, and will require your participation. Students are expected
to attend all lectures, be engaged in the discussion, and actively participate.
GRADING
To pass this course, students must obtain a minimum of 50% in each of the coursework and
exam elements of the assessment.
Attendance in lectures is mandatory. Students who fail to be present in at least 50 % of the
lectures this semester will not be allowed to sit for the final exam.
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PLAIGARISM
Any idea, sentence or paragraph you take from another source must be credited to that source. If
you paraphrase or directly quote from a web source, presentation or essays, the source must be
explicitly mentioned. You SHOULD NOT feel free to plagiarize content, be it from scholarly
sources (i.e. books and journal articles) or from the Internet. The university has strict rules with
consequences for students involved in plagiarism. This is an issue of academic integrity on
which no compromise will be made.
As law students, you are entering a profession that is responsible for upholding the rule of law.
Please do not harm the integrity of the profession or your reputation by being dishonest in your
academic work.
WORD OF CAUTION ABOUT ONLINE READINGS
Online sources can be classified into reliable, unreliable and outright wrong. The Internet is an
open domain in which all and sundry can create web pages and indulge in propaganda,
falsification or misrepresentation of events. The few sources that can help you with basic
information and which are fairly unbiased are: websites of established newspapers, magazines,
and journals.
Student should always consult with their instructors about the veracity and authenticity of a
particular website and its suitability for researching topics covered in this syllabus.
PART III
KEYWORD SYLLABUS
Review of the nature and scope of tort law in comparative contexts; forms and standards of
liability including strict, absolute, vicarious, employer’s and product liability; torts in common
law and in statute; capacity and tort law; joint and several tortfeasors; intentional torts including
battery, assault and false imprisonment; defences and justifications to tort claims; damages and
other remedies in tort law; relationship between tort law and other branches of the law; specific
areas of tort law, including: fraud, defamation, libel, and nuisance.
Detailed Syllabus:
Review of the nature and scope and objectives of tort law including general principles and
general elements.
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Review of the different forms and standards of liability of tort law.
Strict liability, absolute liability and other forms of liability in tort law.
The relationship between intentional torts and negligence; Intentional torts; trespass to the
person; assault, battery and false imprisonment; intentional infliction of physical harm to
the person, etc.
Defamation; libel and slander, Defamation statute if any, defences for defamation.
READINGS
The reading in this class will consist primarily of cases and some background material on basic
tort principles. Because tort law is largely common-law based (and not statutory), cases will be
drawn from various common law jurisdictions, including India, the United States, and the United
Kingdom. Readings will be emailed to students a few days before each class.
Primary Texts
Ratanlal & Dhirajlal: The Law of Torts, 25th Ed., (Lexis Nexis: Butterworth, 2009).
Richard Epstein, Cases and Materials on Torts, 5th ed., (Aspen: 2005).
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Supplementary Reading (preferably latest editions)
Kenneth S. Abraham, The Forms and Functions of Tort Law, 3rd ed. (Foundation Press: 2007).
John Murphy: Street on Torts, 11th Ed., (Oxford University Press, 2003)
Richard Kidner, Casebook on Torts, 7th Ed., Oxford (University Press 2002)
Salmond on Torts
P.S. Achuthen Pillai, Law of Torts, 9th Ed., (Eastern Book Company 2009)
Acts/Statutes/Ordinances
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PART IV
LECTURE PROGRAMME: The following lecture schedule is tentative and may be revised by
the instructor.
7 NEGLIGENCE: DEFENSES
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CONSTITUTIONAL TORTS, ACT OF STATE,
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SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY, AND OTHER
MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS
15 REVIEW
WEEK I
1. Introduction to Torts
a. Evolution of Torts; Elements of a Tort; Tort as a Private Law remedy
2. Purpose/ function and goals of the Law of Tort including an overview of tort theory;
Remedies in Tort
3. Foundations of Tortious Liability
4. Tort and Contracts; Tort and Crimes
5. Classification of Torts
Required Reading
Supplemental Reading
Stephen R. Perry, “The Moral Foundations of Tort Law”, 77 Iowa L. Rev. 449 (1991 –
1992).
Glanville Williams, “The Aims of the Law of Torts”, (1951) 4 Current Legal Problems 137.
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WEEK II-IV
INTENTIONAL TORTS
1. Trespass to Person:
a. Assault and Battery
b. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
c. False Imprisonment
REQUIRED READING
Cases
Cases
6. Vincent v. Lake Erie Transportation Co., 109 Minn. 456, 124 N.W. 221 (1910)
7. Dougherty v. Stepp, 18 N.C. 371 (1835)
8. Poggi v. Scott, 139 P. 815 (Cal. 1914)
a. Consent
b. Self-defence
c. Defence of Property
d. Necessity
Cases
9. Hudson v. Craft, 204 P.2d 1 (Cal 1949
10. McGuire v. Almy, 8 N.E. 2d 760 (Mass. 1937
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11. Courvoisier v. Raymond, 47 P. 284 (Colo. 1896
12. Bird v. Holbrook, 130 Eng. Rep. 911 (C.P. 1825)
13. Kirby v. Foster, 17 R.I. 437, 22 A. 1111 (R.I. 1891)
14. Ploof v. Putnam, 81 Vt. 471, 71 A. 188 (1908)
15. Vincent v. Lake Erie, 124 N.W. 221 (Minn. 1910)
WEEKS V-VI
NEGLIGENCE
Cases
Duty of Care
RECOMMENDED READING- Duty of Care- Avtar Singh, R & D and Tony Weir.
REQUIRED READING
1. Donoghue v. Stevenson (1932) All ER Rep.
2. The Caparo Test
Breach of Duty
RECOMMENDED READING- Breach of Duty- Kenneth Abraham, Epstein’s Torts and
Epstein’s Cases and Materials on Torts.
REQUIRED READING
Reasonable Man:
REQUIRED READING
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6. Scott v. Shephard, 96 Eng. Rep. 525 (K.B. 1773)
7. Stone v. Bolton, [1950] 1 K.B. 201 (C.A.)
8. Veeran v. Krishnamurthy, AIR 1966 Ker 172
9. Blyth v. Birmingham Water Works, 156 Eng. Rep. 1047 (Ex. 1856).
Proof of Negligence:
REQUIRED READINGS
REQUIRED READING
9. Bolam test
10. Laxman B. Joshi v. Trimbak B. Godbole, AIR 1969 SC 128-
11. Philips India Ltd. V. Kunju Punnu, (1974) 77 BLR 337: AIR 1975 Bom 306
12. A.S. Mittal v. State of U.P., 1989 3 SCC 223
WEEK VII
DEFENSES TO NEGLIGENCE
1. DEFENSES
RECOMMENDED READING
a. Contributory negligence- Bangia.
b. Assumption of Risk/Volenti Non Fit Injuria – Bangia (28-40)
c. Exclusion of Liability
d. Illegality or ex turpi causa non oritur actio
e. Insanity
REQUIRED READING
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Cases
1. Smith v. Charles Baker and Sons (1891) AC 325 (HL)
2. South Indian Industrial Ltd., Madras v. Alamelu Ammal, AIR 1923 Mad. 565
3. Haynes v. Harwood (1935) 1 KB 146
4. Ramchandangram Nagaram Rice & Oil Ltd. v. Municipal Commissioners of Purulia
Municipality, AIR 1943 Pat. 408
5. Manindra Nath Mukherjee v. Mathuradas Chatturbhuj, AIR 1946 Cal. 175
6. Hall v. Brokands Auto Racing Club (1932) 1 KB 205
7. T.C. Balkrishnan v. T.R. Subramanian, AIR 1968 Ker. 151.
8. Vidya Devi, R&D p 570
9. Morris v Murray[1990] 3 All ER 801
10. Breunig v. American Family Insurance, 173 N.W.2d 619 (Wis. 1970).
Absolute Liability:
Article- 20 years after the Disaster.
4. Union Carbide Corporation and others v. Union of India and others, (1989) 1 SCC
674.
5. M.C. Mehta v. Shri Ram Foods and Fertilizer Industries, AIR 1987 SC 965
Supplemental Reading
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WEEK X AND XI
DEFAMATION
REQUIRED READING
Cases
WEEK XII-XIII
REQUIRED READINGS
Statute/Readings
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WEEK XIV
Selected Cases
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