25 1.

13 Tort law and strict liability

In terms of a Venn diagram, tort law and property law are two intersecting circles within
a rectangle that represents the entirety of English law. The area covered by both the tort law
circle and the property law circle is made up of rules and principles which belong to both
areas of law. These rules and principles dene what basic rights someone with a given
interest in property will have against other people, and what remedies will be available
when those rights are violated. These rules and principles belong to tort law, because it is
tort law that denes what basic rights we have against other people, and what remedies will
be available when those rights are violated. But these rules and principles also belong to
property law, because they concern what rights are enjoyed by people who have a particular
interest in property, and what remedies will be available when those rights are violated.
So what rules and principles belong exclusively to tort law and do not have anything to
do with property law? And what rules and principles belong exclusively to property law and
have nothing to do with tort law? On the tort law side, if we have a basic right against
someone else but we are given that right not because we have some kind of interest in
property, but for some other reason then that right has nothing to do with property law.
So, for example, the right A will have that B not lie to him and induce him to act in a
particular way (the violation of which amounts to the tort of deceit, or fraud) has nothing
to do with property law he does not have that right because he has a particular interest
in property, but because he is a human being whose autonomy (or freedom to choose what
to do, free from other peoples manipulations) is deserving of respect.
On the property law side, all the rules and principles that dene what can amount to
property, what interests someone can have in property, and how those interests may be
acquired and lost, belong exclusively to property law and have nothing to do with tort law.
Tort law only comes in after someone has acquired an interest in property, to dene what
rights that interest-holder has against other people by virtue of his holding that interest.
Tort law has nothing to say about what sort of interests people can have in property, and
how those interests may be acquired and lost. It is a rule of property law, and not tort law,
that no more than four people can own land as joint tenants, and that if Blackacre is
conveyed to A, B, C, D, E and F in undivided shares, then Blackacre will be legally owned
by A, B, C and D as joint tenants, and held on trust by them for A, B, C, D, E and F.
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Where
tort law comes in, and where tort law and property law overlap, is in determining what
rights these various people have against other people by virtue of the interests they have in
Blackacre. (Though because Blackacre is in this situation held on trust for A, B, C, D, E and
F, equity will also have something to say about what rights in equitys case, equitable
rights these various individuals will have against other people by virtue of the fact that
they each have a benecial interest in Blackacre.)
1.13 TORT LAW AND STRICT LIABILITY
Strict liability exists when the fact that a particular event has occurred means that a
claimant can obtain a remedy against a defendant, but the defendant was not necessarily at
fault, or to blame, for that event occurring. There is strict liability both within, and outside,
tort law.
Strict liability within tort law is not usually objectionable where the remedy being
sought against a defendant is an injunction or some sort of specic order that the defendant
act in a particular way. For example, suppose that Dealer acquires an antique watch that
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Law of Property Act 1925, s 34.