Description
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Liability for Wrongful Interferences with Chattels by Simon Douglas
The protection of property rights in chattels through the law of torts is centred around the four actions of conversion detinue trespass and negligence. Traditionally these actions have been governed by arcane divisions leading to unnecessary complexity and arbitrariness. The principal argument made in the book is that significant developments in the modern law suggest abolition of these arcane divisions permitting the chattel torts to be given a coherent and justifiable structure. The author argues that the only division which should be drawn in the modern chattel torts is between intentional interferences with chattels where liability is strict and unintentional interferences with chattels where liability is fault-based. To demonstrate this structure the author argues that the actions of conversion detinue and trespass amount in substance to a single cause of action which imposes strict liability for the intentional interference with anothers chattel while the tort of negligence recognises a fault based cause of action for the intentional interference with anothers chattel. Unlike the arcane divisions which have traditionally governed this area of law this basic structure the author suggests can be justified and can be exported to other areas of tort law.