Month: December 2018

Street on Torts is one of the staple tort law texts for both practitioners and students.  This new edition boasts a number of new features including: problem questions at the end of each chapter (allowing a student to check their learning); new duty of care chapters; extensive restructuring of chapters on causation, breach of statutory duty, privacy and remedies; new conclusions to allow the reader to check their understanding; coverage of the Consumer Rights Act 2015; and analysis of a number of the latest case-law (including Hughes-Holland v BPE Solicitors (on scope of duty of care), Patel v Mirza (on illegality defences) and Mohamud v Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc (on vicarious liability)).

The text is split into nine parts: introduction; negligent invasions of personal, property  and financial interests; intentional invasions of interests in the person and property; misrepresentation-based and ‘economic’ torts; torts involving strict or stricter liability; interests in reputation: defamation; privacy; misuse of process and public powers; and parties and remedies.  Many of these parts include a number of chapters (for example, the second part includes eight chapters).  This layout is ideal for any undergraduate student given it follows the syllabus for many tort law modules.

The aim of Street on Torts is to provide a comprehensive, accurate, and accessible account of tort law.  It certainly achieves that aim with considerable ease.  I have been a fan of this text for many years; this latest edition follows in the excellent tradition of earlier editions.  It remains clearly written; explaining the key points in an admirably concise and accessible style (the section on limitation is, for example, excellent given the complications that limitation can bring for practitioners).  It also comes with an online resource centre (see: https://oup-arc.com/access/street15e).  This includes guidance on answering the questions posed at the end of each chapter and an additional chapter on animal torts.

Many students often gripe about the technical or convoluted language of tort law; Street on Torts does not (thankfully) suffer from this issue.  Instead, its layout is well thought-out meaning the material is logically arranged and easy to navigate.  It really provides an excellent link between the introductory texts and the heavyweight texts (which fully analyse each and every point; sometimes in too much detail for undergraduates).  The online resource centre also provides additional (and very valuable) resources.  Street on Torts is an excellent choice for anyone interested in tort law and will remain close to hand for many years to come.

Reviewed on 28 December 2018