Content:
While the course has a public sector orientation, it is designed to provide non-lawyers with an overview of tort law and to provide law graduates with an up-to-date review of basic principle and critical analysis of recent developments. There is some flexibility in the content. Topics to be covered include:

• the field of tort law;
• modern principles of negligence;
• negligent liability of public authorities, with particular attention to failure to exercise a statutory power, and economic loss;
• breach of statutory duty;
• nuisance;
•  misfeasance in public office.

A participant who has successfully completed this course should:

• have an overview of the shape of, and trends in, modern tort law;
• understand the principles of negligence, and their particular application to governments and public authorities;
• understand the operation of the separate torts of nuisance, breach of statutory duty and misfeasance in public office;
• be able to analyse critically the policy issues involved, and appreciate the intersection of tort law with other principles and bodies of law.

Assessment is likely to comprise an 8,000 word assignment on a topic of the student's choice (subject to the lecturer's approval).

Students must rely on the Approved Assessment which will be posted to the Wattle course website, prior to the commencement of the course. 

26 Contact Hours (Intensive Delivery over 4 days)

Click here for the current timetable

Assumed knowledge: Either a Law degree or successful completion of Fundamentals of Government and Commercial Law.

Required skills: Ability to read and understand selected cases and statutes. 

LAWS8568 Fundamentals of Government and Commercial Law (non-lawyers).

Balkin and Davis, Law of Torts 4 ed, 2009, Chap 7

A set of reading materials will be prepared and made available electronically approximately one month before classes start.