The Liability of Public Authorities in Tort

Lord Justice Dyson

July 2006

A paper given to a joint meeting of the Society of Construction Law and the Technology and Construction Bar Association in London on 6th December 2005.

What are the recurring themes in the courts' search for principles to determine when a public body owes a duty of care in negligence? With wide-ranging examples, Lord Justice Dyson identifies the approaches the courts have developed, in particular their need to assess and predict the effects of imposing liability, and the application of these principles to construction cases, from Dutton to Murphy and beyond.

Introduction - Uncertainty in the law of negligence - Duty of care and public authorities - Applying the tests for duty of care - Weighing the competing considerations - Common concerns - The most recent cases - Insights from the courts on advocates' immunity - The importance of the statutory scheme - Construction cases - Conclusions.

The author: Lord Justice Dyson is a Lord Justice of Appeal; he is also an honorary member of the Society of Construction Law.

Text: 16 pages

PDF file size: 148k