James Goudkamp

Winfield & Jolowicz on Tort has been a leading work on the subject since the first edition was published over 90 years ago. With the publication of this twenty-first edition it continues to be a clear, authoritative and comprehensive guide to this area of law. It is widely adopted for use by students, an invaluable resource for practitioners, and regarded in other legal systems as providing a definitive account of the English law of tort.

The doctrine of contributory negligence, which is a cornerstone of private law, is very frequently invoked in practice and also raises a host of pressing theoretical issues. This volume provides legal practitioners and scholars with a clear and comprehensive exposition of the legal principles governing contributory negligence alongside an empirically informed analysis of the way in which the doctrine operates in various recurrent factual scenarios. The doctrinal analysis is supplemented by a consideration of the historical antecedents of the relevant principles and their normative underpinnings. Central to the book are six chapters in which the authors provide an introductory overview of the doctrine; and then proceed to consider its scope; when a finding of contributory negligence will be made; the consequences of such a finding; the relationship between the doctrine and other rules; and matters relating to procedure and appeals. A detailed appendix sets out the discounts imposed for contributory negligence in a range of frequently occurring situations. Although the focus is on the position in the United Kingdom, account is also taken of the case law and literature in several other common law jurisdictions.

Despite the centrality of the contributory negligence doctrine in practice, almost nothing is known about how it functions in reality. The authors, seeking to fill this deficit in understanding, have undertaken a wide-ranging empirical study of how the doctrine is handled by the courts. They report their methodology and findings in this volume, framing their discussion within the law of contributory negligence. The study is based on 572 first instance decisions on contributory negligence from across the United Kingdom decided between 2000 and 2016, and 129 appellate decisions handed down in the same period. The analysis considers the operation of the contributory negligence doctrine at first instance and on appeal, and in a range of contextual settings, including road accidents, accidents at work, and professional negligence claims. The authors also consider how the study can be used to inform future developments in this area of law. Substantial appendices set out the key data on which the book is based, enabling academics to utilize the dataset in their own research and allowing practitioners to compare their cases easily with previously decided claims.

Now in its ninth edition, Atiyah's Accidents, Compensation and the Law explores the recent and continuous developments in personal injury law by applying social context to the relevant legal principles. Those principles remain in need of radical reform. Updates to the text include discussion of the major changes to the way compensation is calculated and claimed, evolving funding arrangements for personal injury litigation, and dramatic shifts in the claims management industry. Suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students taking courses in tort law, this new edition balances theory, practice and context. It draws on new legislation, research and case law to offer the reader thought-provoking examples and analysis.

The law of torts recognises many defences to liability. While some of these defences have been explored in detail, scant attention has been given to the theoretical foundations of defences generally. In particular, no serious attempt has been made to explain how defences relate to each other or to the torts to which they pertain. The goal of this book is to reduce the size of this substantial gap in our understanding of tort law. The principal way in which it attempts to do so is by developing a taxonomy of defences. The book shows that much can be learned about a given defence from the way in which it is classified. This new paperback edition contains a substantial preface in which the author responds to critics. Reviews‘James Goudkamp’s book can rightly claim to be the first serious attempt to examine tort law defences systematically and it is a very important addition to the private law canon … [His] analysis is consistently thought-provoking … [T]his book will provide the framework for future analysis of all private law defences’. Graham Virgo, The Cambridge Law Journal ‘This book … is the first sustained attempt in the modern law to explore the theoretical foundations of the defences to liability recognised by the law of tort and their interrelationship ... [It is] an instant classic’. Ken Oliphant and Annette Morris, Yearbook of European Tort Law‘James Goudkamp’s Tort Law Defences fills a startling gap in tort law scholarship… [It] provides an impressive foundation for the future study of defences, and will undoubtedly become the standard against which all other works are measured’. Erika Chamberlain, Canadian Business Law Journal

The law of torts recognises many defences to liability. While some of these defences have been explored in detail, scant attention has been given to the theoretical foundations of defences generally. In particular, no serious attempt has been made to explain how defences relate to each other or to the torts to which they pertain. The goal of this book is to reduce the size of this substantial gap in our understanding of tort law. The principal way in which it attempts to do so is by developing a taxonomy of defences. The book shows that much can be learned about a given defence from the way in which it is classified. This book has been awarded Joint Second Prize for the 2014 Society of Legal Scholars Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship.