A man slips on a dance floor and breaks his leg. He recovers damages. A child has both legs amputated as a result of meningitis and is awarded nothing. The law's justification for awarding damages in the first case is that the man's injury was the fault of someone else, while in the second case damages are denied because nobody was at fault. In this searching critique of the present law and practice relating to damages, Professor Patrick Atiyah shows that this system is in fact a lottery. He contends that the public are paying far too much for an unfair and inefficient insurance system and that reform is long overdue. His conclusion is that actions for damages for injuries should be abolished and replaced with a new no-fault road accident scheme, and actions for other injuries should be dealt with by individual or group insurance policies.

A man slips on a dance floor and breaks his leg. He recovers damages. A child has both legs amputated as a result of meningitis and is awarded nothing. The law's justification for awarding damages in the first case is that the man's injury was the fault of someone else, while in the second case damages are denied because nobody was at fault. In this searching critique of the present law and practice relating to damages, Professor Patrick Atiyah shows that this system is in fact a lottery. He contends that the public are paying far too much for an unfair and inefficient insurance system and tha.

A classic treatment of the law relating to compensation for personal injuries, this edition discusses the relevant legal rules as well as the social, political and economic issues underlying the law.

This text offers an overview of the tort system for the non-lawyer or new law undergraduate. This new edition looks at topics such as the theories of tort law, accident compensation and its future, the rise of negligence, and issues in economic loss.

NEW in paperback From the Reviews of the hardback edition: This is a fascinating and thought-provoking collection of eight essays..... Taken together they represent a coherent and compelling exposition of the English law of obligations.... One is left with the picture of an [author] ... who remains a devotee of "practical scholarship" and the deductive technique of the common law and has a grasp on its intricacies second to non." Edwin Peel, The Law Quarterly Review, 1999 "[These essays], all concerned with various aspects of contract, tort and unjust enrichment, are a pleasure to peruse, and a distinct cut above the usual lacklustre collection of past triumphs now beyond their sell-by date. Without exception they are both topical and relevant: ... together they form a readable, scholarly and eclectic mixture of exposition and polemic, of speculation and analysis" Andrew Tettenborn, The Cambridge Law Journal, 1999 "..quite simply the most convincing and complete explanation of the law of obligations that is currently available - the book is thorough, compelling, definitive, and highly important." Paul Kearns, Anglo-American Law Review, 1999 "an extremely important work, produced by a leading academic." David Wright, Adelaide Law Review

The publication of Scholars of Tort Law marks the beginning of a long overdue rebalancing of private law scholarship. Instead of concentrating on judicial decisions and academic commentary only for what that commentary says about judicial decisions, the book explores the contributions of scholars of tort law in their own right. The work of a selection of leading scholars of tort law from across the common law world, ranging from Thomas Cooley (1824–1898) to Patrick Atiyah (1931–2018), is addressed by eminent current scholars in the field. The focus of the contributions is on the nature of the work produced by each of the scholars in question, important influences on their work, and the influence which that work in turn had on thinking about tort law. The process of subjecting tort law scholarship to sustained analysis provides new insights into the intellectual development of tort law and reveals the important role played by scholars in that development. By focusing on the work of influential tort scholars, the book serves to emphasise the importance of legal scholarship to the development of the common law more generally.

This insightful book considers how the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is faced with numerous challenges which emanate from authoritarian and populist tendencies arising across its member states. It argues that it is now time to reassess how the ECHR responds to such challenges to the protection of human rights in the light of its historical origins.

Remedies is one of the key organizing concepts of the obligations approach to the common law. This second edition modernizes the former 1995 edition quite considerably. It determines the place of remedies in contract and tort within the debate about the reform of the common law obligation.