Nuisance, Local Authorities and Neighbours from Hell

Extract

One of the most difficult current problems for tort lawyers is the extent to which the normal rules of tort, developed over decades of litigation between private individuals, should apply in undiluted form to local and other public authorities. Most individuals have never seen a child drowning in a puddle or about to walk off a cliff, and would not hesitate to help them if they did, but public authorities, empowered by Parliament, are faced every day with the delicate and expensive task of protecting others from harm. It has become all too apparent, as the courts (domestic and European) grapple with the thorny question of when a common law duty of care should exist in the context of the careless exercise of, or failure to exercise, statutory powers, that the ordinary rules of negligence liability need considerable refinement to operate sensibly in such a political field. Moreover those difficulties and differences do not disappear merely because a tort other than negligence is involved, and this has been amply illustrated in three recent cases, each involving actions against local authorities in the tort of nuisance.