Torts and Rights

The law of torts is concerned with the secondary obligations generated by the infringement of primary rights. This work shows that this apparently simple proposition enables us to understand the law of torts as found in the common law.

Using primarily English materials, but drawing heavily upon the law of other common law jurisdictions, Stevens seeks to give an account of the law of torts which relies upon the core material familiar to most students and practitioners with a grasp of the law of torts. This material is drawn together in support of a single argument in a provocative and accessible style, and puts forward a new theoretical model for analyzing the law of torts, providing an overarching framework for radically reconceiving the subject.

Robert Stevens is a lecturer at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, where he has taught since 1994. He has also lectured at the Universities of Nijmegen and Leiden and for the Judicial Studies Board. He is a commercial barrister. He has published widely on many aspects of private law, always seeking to show how the theory of academic law has practical relevance to the law as found in the courts.