Law of Torts for Law Students

A civil wrong with a shape

The law of torts asks when one person must compensate another for a wrong that is not simply a broken bargain and not simply a crime. The duty often comes from law rather than from a signed promise. The subject is built heavily from judgments. India does not give you one Tort Code that lists every wrong the way the Contract Act lists contractual ideas. Some statutes sit nearby and create liability of their own. You study the named torts your syllabus uses, and you read the cases. This note is the orientation. is the tort most students meet first, and it has elements you should not collapse into "someone was hurt."

Because the authority is often a case, the matters more here than a section number. Do not invent a citation. If you have not opened the report, say "a case I have not yet read" or do not name it. that invents reporters is not research.

Tort, crime, and contract

A crime is prosecuted as a public wrong under criminal law, now substantively the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which the introduces. A contract claim follows an agreement, which the discusses. A tort claim is a civil action for a wrong such as negligence, nuisance, or defamation, if the elements are there. The same afternoon can produce more than one kind of proceeding. A car crash might be a crime, a tort, and a contract dispute with an insurer. You still plead the elements of the claim you are actually analysing. Using "tort" as a synonym for "bad" will not pass a problem question.

Defences are part of the tort

Consent, lawful authority, and other defences your course teaches are not afterthoughts. A prima facie wrong can fail when a defence is made out. Write the defence only when the facts raise it. Do not add consent because it would be convenient. Do not deny a defence the problem states. Vicarious liability, the idea that one person answers for another's tort in a recognised relationship, is a separate question. It is not automatic whenever two people know each other. Read the relationship your casebook actually requires.

Statutes at the edge

Motor-vehicle claims, consumer claims, and some environmental or industrial liabilities are statutory regimes with their own forums and tests. They are not "the law of torts" in full, and they are not outside your world either. When the problem cites a statute, open it. When it does not, do not drag in a tribunal to sound practical. This note will not set a compensation schedule. Schedules change and belong in the statute.

How to write a tort problem

Name the tort you are testing. List its elements. Match facts to elements. Note what is missing. Then consider a defence the facts raise. End with the remedy in principle, usually damages, without a number. If the syllabus wants an injunction as a possibility, say it is a court order you do not assume. Quote a case only with a holding you have read, tied to the element it illustrates. A case about nuisance does not prove a defamation element. Keep the torts in their boxes.

Indian courts use and adapt common-law reasoning. That does not make an English case an Indian statute. Say persuasive, or say the principle as received, when that is what you mean. The negligence note does this for one famous case. Do not do it by accident for every English name you have heard. A name without a holding you have read is only a name.

A hypothetical about the wrong box

Hypothetical. A shopkeeper insults a customer and also fails to deliver prepaid goods. The student writes "tort of breach." There is no such tort. There may be a contract claim about the goods. There may, if the words meet the elements, be a defamation or another civil wrong. The insult and the non-delivery are different facts.

The rewrite splits the paragraph. Contract on one side, with the essentials and the breach analysis. Any tort only if an element list is satisfied, which the insult alone may not be. The student does not award a sum for hurt feelings. No such tariff is in this note. Splitting the claims is the whole skill the hypothetical is meant to test.

A checklist before you name a tort

Sort the wrong. 1. Ask whether the duty came from an agreement or from law. 2. Name one tort, not a cloud of them. 3. Write its elements. 4. Match only the given facts. 5. Ask about a defence the facts actually suggest. 6. Keep crime in a separate sentence if the facts look criminal. 7. Cite a case only after you open it, and do not invent a damage figure.

If you cannot list the elements, you are not ready to name the tort. Read the chapter until you can.

A reading course, not a claims desk

Kanoons Academy does not currently list a separate LAWCET, CLAT, or AP LAWCET batch in the catalogue; these notes are study material, and counselling is via . The nearest catalogue course is . That course teaches how to read an Act, a rule, and a judgment note. It is not a tort clinic. The button uses the course's name.

Name the wrong precisely. Then read the case that taught it.