| Back | “Each principle must refer, as well, to some interest protected by tort law and some sanction provided by tort law.” Peter Cane, Mens Rea in Tort Law (2000) 20 Oxford JLS 533 at 552 - approved in OBG Ltd v Allen [2007] UKHL 21, [2008] 1 AC 1 at [32] per Lord Hoffmann “Initially, the search for a theoretical basis for tort law centered on the issue of whether there was a general principle of tortious liability. Sir John Salmond argued that tort law was merely a patchwork of distinct causes of action, each protecting different interests and each based on separate principles of liability....In contrast, writers such as Pollock contended that the law of torts was based upon the single unifying principle that all harms were tortious unless they could be justified...The courts were thus free to recognize new torts. Glanville Williams suggested a compromise between the two viewpoints. He argued that tort law historically exhibited no comprehensive theory, but that the existing categories of liability were sufficiently flexible to enable tort law to grow and adapt.” Solomon, Feldthusen and Mills, Cases and Materials on the Law of Torts (2nd ed. 1986) at 6 |