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Tort Law Course Outline

Course Outline for HKU LLAW 1005

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Kristy K
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191 views4 pages

Tort Law Course Outline

Course Outline for HKU LLAW 1005

Uploaded by

Kristy K
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

FACULTY OF LAW
2024-25

LAW OF TORTS
LLAW1005 – LAW OF TORT I
LLAW1006 – LAW OF TORT II

COURSE OUTLINE
This Course Outline is applicable to both Law of Tort I and Law of Tort II.

Course Convenors:

Craig Purshouse & John Murphy


ABOUT THE COURSE AS A WHOLE

The Law of Torts is a full-year subject, with LLAW1005 Law of Tort I taken in Semester One,

and LLAW1006 (Law of Tort II) in Semester Two. A final grade will be awarded for both Law

of Tort I and Law of Tort II. The final grade will combine the individual grades awarded for each

of the assessment components (see below).

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course is designed in such a way that with effort, you can achieve the learning outcomes

listed below. Note that this statement of course learning outcomes represents a minimum. In other

words, this learning outcomes statement should not be understood as placing limits on your

learning. You may find that you can achieve more than is mentioned here.

At the end of this course, having completed the various learning activities and assessments, you

should be able to:

1. Explain the most important and commonly litigated torts, their constituent elements and the

functions they perform within the legal system.

2. Put together, in lawyerly fashion, rigorous arguments concerning the positive law, as well as

normative aspects of the law of torts.

3. See the relevance of tort law in daily life.

Each of these learning objectives can be achieved in various ways, including class exercises and

directed self-study.
SEMESTER ONE – LAW OF TORT I
This part of the course focuses on the law of negligence, as well as the statutory rules governing
the tortious liabilities of occupiers.

Week Lecture topic Tutorial topic


1 Introduction to torts - CP No class
2 Introduction to negligence + No class
damage + general duty of care
tests - CP
3 Psychiatric injury – CP Introduction to torts
4 Pure economic loss - CP Damage
5 No class (public holiday) General duty of care tests
6 Omissions and scope of duty - Psychiatric injury
CP
7 Reading week Reading week
8 Breach - CP Pure economic loss
9 Causation/remoteness – JM Omissions
10 Causation/remoteness – JM Breach
11 Occupiers’ liability - JM Causation and remoteness
12 Revision Occupiers’ liability

SECOND SEMESTER – LAW OF TORT II


In this semester, several further substantive torts will be covered along with certain other
important tort law doctrines. The rules governing general defences in tort and remedies will also
be studied.

Semester 2
Week Lecture topic Tutorial topic
1 Exam feedback + Intentional No class
torts 1 - CP
2 Intentional torts 2 - CP
Exam feedback/technique
3 Intentional Torts 3 - CP Intentional Torts 1
4 Land-based Torts - JM Intentional Torts 2
5 Land-based Torts - JM Intentional Torts 3
6 Land-based Torts - JM Intentional Torts 4
7 Reading week Reading week
8 Vicarious Liability and Non- Land-based torts 1
delegable duties 1 - JM
9 Vicarious Liability and Non- Land-based torts 2
delegable duties 2 - JM
10 Defences - JM Vicarious liability and Non-
delegable duties
11 Remedies - JM Defences and remedies
12 No class Defences and remedies
ASSESSMENTS
1. End-of-Semester One Exam: one essay (from a choice of two) and problem (from a choice of
two) based on semester 1 learning.

50% of final grade.

2. End-of-Semester Two Exam: one essay (from a choice of two) and problem (from a choice of
two) based on semester 2 learning.

50% of final grade.

MOODLE PAGE
It is important that you check the Moodle page frequently. Handouts, as well as further
information, changes and updates will be uploaded to it.

TEXTS AND MATERIALS


This course is designed to expose students to the work of a range of very capable scholars. In
relation to textbooks, no single book is ever perfect. The law moves on inexorably. Thus, all
textbooks become dated over time. They therefore fail comprehensively to represent the law as
we find it. At the same time, different authors have different styles. Thus, although every decent
textbook will provide a largely accurate account of the diverse body of rules that go to make up
the law of torts, they may do so in ways that afford prominence to different points of law. They
may be more or less critical of certain doctrines or cases. They may arrange the exposition of the
subject’s constituent topics in different ways. And all textbooks are written by scholars who have
their own particular styles of writing, some of which you may find very accessible, others less so.
For all of these reasons it is suggested that you “dip into” a few of the ones mentioned in the
first lecture in addition to the book recommended below.

Notwithstanding the above, we think the best book currently available is.

NJ McBride and R Bagshaw, Tort Law 7th edn (Pearson, 2024).

Others you might like to look at are:


C Witting, Street on Torts (OUP, 2021)
J Goudkamp and D Nolan, Winfield and Jolowicz on Tort (Sweet and Maxwell, 2020)

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