Torts Mini Thesis
Format for Writing a Midterm Mini Thesis Paper
This short paper explains and demonstrates the format required for midterm mini thesis papers. Of course, those papers will focus on a subject related to your course.
First, midterm mini thesis papers should look professional. Use one-inch margins on all sides, 12-point font, and a standard businesslike font like Arial, Times New Roman, or something similar. Use black ink only on all parts of the paper. Paragraphs may be single spaced, but skip a line between each paragraph. If you prefer, you may doublespace the entire paper and use indentation for each paragraph.
Use a professional, businesslike tone. Jokes, slang, and cliches are inappropriate. On the other hand, plain understandable language and properly used words are always acceptable. “Many people mistake ‘academic tone’ for big words, vague ideas, and heady data. An academic tone is conscious, intentional, committed, and dedicated to helping readers better understand a subject or argument.”1
You noticed above, of course, the proper quotation format and footnoted citation to an article found online. Any wording that is not your own must be indicated either with quotation marks or with a block quote. Below is a sample of a block quote used when the quotation is longer than about four lines.
In legal writing, citation serves two purposes: attribution and support. Citation facilitates attribution by identifying the source of ideas developed in the text, and materials quoted or referenced therein.... Citation facilitates support by directing the reader to a specific legal or factual authority that provides support for, or is otherwise relevant to, a proposition stated in the text. (Editors of the Columbia Law Review, et. al. The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, 18th. Harvard Law Review Association: Cambridge, 2005.)
Notice that the block citation is “in line” directly after the quotation, rather than a footnote. Both the footnote and the inline citation methods are demonstrated in this paper, but it’s better to choose just one method and consistently use it throughout your paper. Additionally, if you prefer endnotes to footnotes, that is fine as well. Do check your copy of the Bluebook for the proper way to format the citation itself.
ry not to be intimidated by the assignment. If you show that you have spent some time thinking about what you have learned so far, and if you heed the format and length requirements, you should easily pass this assignment.
Tort Law
Student Name
Course
date
Tort Law
Introduction
Tort law can be considered one of the most commonly applied laws in the court systems today. Many court cases not involving crimes have also been some of the most complex cases to resolve. An example is the recently concluded defamation case between Jonny Depp and Amber Heard. In such cases, plaintiffs and defendants argue regarding whether or not injuries were suffered and the damages caused and to be compensated as a consequence. Tort law is quite broad since it handles most of the civil non-criminal cases where the courts impose liability on an individual due to injury caused through an invasion of any legal right. as an individual studying tort law, the first question one has to ask is what tort law means. In this mini-thesis, a detailed discussion of the major concepts involving tort is discussed. The thesis begins by defining tort law, describing its evolution over time, and discussing the elements and types of tort.
Defining Tort Law
There is no singular definition of the term ‘tort law’ since tort law is not a singular law in itself. However, the most relevant description is that tort law is a collection of principles that describe the legal system’s civil non-criminal responses to injuries caused by an individual on another (Best, Barnes, and Kahn-Fogel 2018, 1). A tort takes place when the actions of one individual cause some form of harm or injury to another. In the example given above of John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard (CL-2019-2911), the actions of the defendant were found to have some form of injury to the plaintiff, which meant that damages had to be paid by the latter. This is an example of a civil case, which is non-criminal, which qualifies as a tort. As will be explained earlier, John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard (CL-2019-2911) falls under the tort of defamation, which means damaging one’s reputation through both libel and slander. Overall, tort law encompasses all civil cases of this nature where the cases involve acts or omissions that constitute a civil wrong.
Another way to view tort law is as private law. Therefore, tort law focuses on the wrongdoings by private persons (Ripstein 2022). A major area of contrast between tort and contract law is that tort obligations the private individuals to not enter tort obligations voluntarily. On the contrary, tort obligations are determined by the courts based on the outcomes of the acts of omissions of an individual towards the civil rights of another. Tort law is also differentiated from criminal law where the main difference is that the state does not have to be part of the tort actions. It can be observed that torts often developed from the efforts of the courts to address private disputes. The tort law prescribes the minimal forms of conduct that individuals are legally entitled to demand of others even without any prior arrangements. In other words, an action by one individual without consulting another may still lead to a tort if the aforesaid actions cause some form of injury to the other. The remedies offered to the plaintiffs are intended to be compensatory for the damages. In some cases, punitive remedies are determined by the courts if individuals are found to cause harm knowingly and maliciously.
Evolution of Tort Law
The evolution of tort law can be viewed from a theoretical or philosophical perspective. From a theoretical perspective, tort developed from a simple theory with a simple definition. According to Hershovitz (2017), some theorists gave tort as simple a definition as "law is the command of the sovereign," which presented huge problems since some of the tort laws are not commands. Others have called torts "private wrongs," majorly since torts focus on the wrongdoings of private individuals on others. The main issue with perceiving tort law from a theoretical perspective is that theorists often attempt to accomplish a lot with very little. In other words, they develop very simple theories with simple statements and descriptions. Some of the theories are considered too simple, including the aforementioned definition of torts as commands, which was developed by a theorist named John Austin. Such a theory is too simple and fails to capture the whole essence of torts. From a theoretical perspective, the first step in developing the concept of tort is to determine what is considered wrong and what wrongs qualify as torts.
From a philosophical perspective, the evolution of tort law is manifested through the changes that have occurred in how wrongs and cases are interpreted. Tort law is regarded as one of the oldest bodies of law in the world since it has been around for centuries. Across these centuries, tort law majorly served the purpose of corrective justice by identifying wrongdoers and obliging them to return their victims to the pre-injury position (Tilley 2017, 1326). However, things started to change in the mid-19th century when judges and tort theorists in America began describing the tort theory as overtly moral. This description meant that tort theory was incompatible with the liberal democracy, which was designed to promote fairness as opposed to goodness. In the 20th century, a policy was developed by tort theorists to focus on the optimal allocation of accident costs to incentivize care while paying attention not to discourage socially useful activities. However, this does not mean that a consensus has been reached regarding the conceptualization of tort liability since American theorists are still between the economic and moral.
A key point to note in the evolution of tort theory is that tort liability dates further than the 20th and 19th centuries mentioned above. According to Tilley (2017, 1327), tort liability dates back to Aristotle in his reference to a "distinctive moral structure." This philosophy emanated from the idea that humans were entitled not to be harmed by others and that causing harm obligated the wrongdoer to compensate their victims. This proposition was termed by Aristotle “corrective justice,” which explains the origins of the liability based on moral obligations by individuals in their relationships with others. Changes to this position began to appear in the late 19th century when theorists proposed that the imposition of liability in tort change from immorality to unreasonableness. In other words, a wrongdoer is not obliged to compensate a victim for his or her actions being immoral. On the contrary, the liability is the result of the actions being unreasonable. However, the fact remains that the idea of reasonableness is an eternal standard derived from social need. Today, tort law is major based on the economic consequences of actions where the courts estimate the damages suffered and allocate monetary compensation.
To illustrate how the economic interpretation of tort liability works, some cases have resulted in compensatory damages while others have not. For example, the case of Barnett v Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management Committee [1968] 2 WLR 422 involved a medical doctor negligently discharging a patient, who then dies. The doctor could have been held liable for this death and could have been forced to pay the damages. However, the patient was suffering from arsenic poisoning, which meant that he could have died regardless of the actions of the doctor. In this case, the doctor escapes liability. In the case of John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard (CL-2019-2911), Amber caused defamatory damages, which she was obliged to pay. John was also found to be liable in certain situations and was also obliged to pay Amber a set amount. The difference between these cases is that in the former, the outcome is not solely dependent on the acts or omissions, which is the main basis of the application of tort law.
Elements of a Tort
Several elements or principles form the foundation for tort law. These are the presence of a duty of care, a breach of duty, an injury, and the cause of the injury being the result of the breach. These elements have often been the subject of heated debate regarding how they are applied in a tort case. As explained by Stoyanova (2020, 638), the question of whether there is a duty of care comes first before the question of a breach can be asked. Therefore, the application of the law or tort begins by determining the duties of all parties, whether expressed or implied. The existence of a duty cannot be presumed, which means that there is no prima facie duty of care. In the English tort law, the approach used to determine the existence of the duty is incrementalism, which involved drawing analogies with available categories of liability. If the analo...