General Defences

 Defences under tort law can be of two kinds:

1. General
2. Specific

 There can be different ways of categorizing defences under Tort law. For instance,
Winfield et al. have made a broad distinction between: Denials and Defences:
Denials Defences
Meaning: denial of the elements of tort Meaning: rules eliminating liability
Example: Defences are further sub-divided into:
- Consent 1. Justifications:
- voluntary assumption of risk Justifications are further
- Mistake (the denial of mistake is subdivided into:
available in only very few/ exceptional/ 2. Public policy defences
rare instances)
- Inevitable/ pure accident

General
Defences
(generic term)
Denials Defences

Public Policy
E.g. Consent E.g. Mistake Justifications Defences
E.g. Inevitable
Private Public Eg. Illegality
accident

E.g. voluntary E.g. Defence of E.g. Public E.g. Defence of

E.g. Self defence
assumption of risk property necessity another person

E.g. Prevention E.g. Statutory

of crime Authority