Tort Law Class Outline: General Defences

(Chapter 26, Winfield et al.)

 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: Public and
available in only very few/ exceptional/ Private Justifications
rare instances) 2. Public policy defences
- 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. Defence
E.g. voluntary E.g. Self E.g. Defence E.g. Public
of another
assumption of risk defence of property necessity
person

E.g.
E.g. Statutory
Prevention of
Authority
crime