From: Duncan Fairgrieve <d.fairgrieve@BIICL.ORG>
To: Neil Foster <neil.foster@newcastle.edu.au>
Chaim Saiman <chaim.saiman@gmail.com>
Lewis N Klar <lklar@ualberta.ca>
obligations@uwo.ca
Date: 02/09/2014 13:10:39 UTC
Subject: RE: Comparative Tort Law Course

Dear Lewis and colleagues,

 

Having taught and published on comparative torts over the years -both across common law jurisdictions and also civil law / common law jurisdictions- Id be very happy to discuss ! We also run regular conferences on the theme at BIICL in Ldn : http://www.biicl.org/comparativelaw

 

The "constitutional torts" perspective referred to by Chaim is indeed a fascinating area of comparative law study, and though in some jurisdictions conceptual distinct, there is an inevitable "spill-over" into mainstream tort law, which evidently generates controversy & discussion due to the borderline issues b/w tort and public law.

 

Best regards,

 

Duncan

 

 

From: Neil Foster [neil.foster@newcastle.edu.au]
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2014 12:41 AM
To: Chaim Saiman; Lewis N Klar; obligations@uwo.ca
Subject: Re: Comparative Tort Law Course

Dear Chaim, Lewis and colleagues;
Thanks for the mention, Chaim. Yes, my one foray into comparative tort law was a comparison between “Commonwealth” views on statutory civil liability and the way the subject is treated in the US, with variations on “negligence per se” and the implied actions under federal law (such as they are.) The final paper was published in the proceedings of the Obligations VI conference:  "Statutes and Civil Liability in the Commonwealth and the United States: A Comparative Critique" Tort Law: Challenging Orthodoxy. Ed. S G A Pitel, J W Neyers & E Chamberlain. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2013. 169-213.
Lewis of course will all too well be aware that Canada takes a different view from the rest of the Commonwealth on the tort action for Breach of Statutory Duty, but my paper does contain a few general observations about comparing tort law in the US with elsewhere.
I should add that it was due to the kindness of Chaim and other colleagues at Villanova in my visit there that I was able to have time to write the paper and also input to avoid making any egregious mistakes (I hope!)
Colleagues who don’t have one and would like a copy of the final version of the paper should feel free to email me offline.
Regards
Neil

NEIL FOSTER
Associate Professor
Newcastle Law School
Faculty of Business and Law
MC177 McMullin Building

T: +61 2 49217430
E: neil.foster@newcastle.edu.au



The University of Newcastle (UoN)
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From: "chaim.saiman@gmail.com" <chaim.saiman@gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, 2 September 2014 4:11 am
To: Lewis N Klar <lklar@ualberta.ca>, "obligations@uwo.ca" <obligations@uwo.ca>
Subject: Re: Comparative Tort Law Course

I have not taught such a course but Neil Foster and I have thought a bit about the matter.  One factor I would stress is that in the commonwealth the common law of torts plays a significant role in regulating the relationship between the government and the citizen.  The common law  principles of tort work the same whether the defendant is the state or a private actor.   

This is much less true in US law, where torts against the state (the federal state in particular) are governed either by "constitutional torts"  or a variety of statutory schemes. (FTCA, "1983" claims, Bivins actions)  They are for the most part, thought of as conceptually different categories than common law torts. 

Neil and I also talked about differences in how the breach of statutory duty is conceptualized.  And I recall he published a paper on that topic. 

-Chaim Saiman
Villanova Law School
-


On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 1:55 PM, Lewis N Klar <lklar@ualberta.ca> wrote:
Hi:

I am developing and teaching a new course on Comparative Tort Law: Canada and the United States, during the 2015 Spring semester at Arizona State University, College of Law.

If any of you are teaching or have developed materials for a Comparative Tort Law course (any jurisdiction), I would love to hear from you. 

Please  write me (on or off the list).

Thanks,

Lewis

--
Lewis N. Klar, Q.C.,
Professor of Law,
University of Alberta.
(780) 492-7408