Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 09:50:52 -0300

From: Vaughan Black

Subject: Law Commission on Liability of Public Bodies

And for those of you who want further reading on the subject you can tune in to the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada this coming Friday in Holland v. Gov't of Saskatchewan. It features claims for intimidation, misfeasance in public office and negligence.

vb

Quoting Robert Stevens:

Many colleagues will no doubt be interested to learn of the English Law Commission's consultation paper proposing to reform the liability of public bodies.

"Highlights" of these proposals include:

(i) a suggestion that breach of statutory duty should be abolished;
(ii) a proposal to abolish joint and several liability in this context, based upon a misunderstanding of its justification;
(iii) a proposal to allow recovery for 'pure' economic loss against public bodies, based upon a misunderstanding of why such loss is not actionable;
(iv) a frankly bizarre discussion of the principles of liability for torts (Appendix A), including a basic misunderstanding of the nature of corrective justice.  

Some of you will hopefully be inspired to write in. For myself, I don't really know where to begin.

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