Torts on Three Continents Honouring Jane Stapleton

Professor Jane Stapleton is one of the world's leading experts on causation and has had a profound impact on tort law scholarship, both in terms of the incredible range of topics she has contributed to, and across the multiple countries she has worked in. Torts on Three Continents: Honouring Jane Stapleton brings together a group of scholars from Stapleton's 'home' country Australia, from the United Kingdom, where she spent much of her professional career, and the United States, where she has made such a significant contribution, to celebrate and honour her work.

Torts on Three Continents reveals the impressive and enviable breadth of Jane Stapleton's scholarship while contributing to many of the ongoing and traditional debates in tort. The volume is split into four parts. The first part focuses on general themes that arise in Stapleton's work, including the academic influence on judges, the role of insurance in compensation, the impact of vulnerability on tort law and liability of public authorities. The second part considers aspects of liability in the tort of negligence, including duties of care for psychiatric harm. The third part is dedicated completely to causation, with three chapters from authors in three different countries reflecting on the impact of Stapleton's work in this area. The final section covers a variety of different aspects of tort law and compensation systems, including harms committed in the public interest, damage in economic torts, statutory product liability reforms and alternative compensation scheme design.

Powerful and thought-provoking, this book will provide its readers with an appreciation of the magnitude of Jane Stapleton's contribution across the common law world, and a novel perspective on some of the more modern challenges faced in tort law.

Kylie Burns, Professor, Griffith Law School,Jodi Gardner, Brian Coote Chair in Private Law, University of Auckland,Jonathan Morgan, Professor of English Law, University of Cambridge,Sandy Steel, Professor of Law, University of Oxford

Kylie Burns is a Professor in the Griffith Law School. Professor Burns has research expertise in tort law, personal injury law, accident compensation systems, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, judicial reasoning and cognition, and judicial psychological stress. She is a co-author of the leading Australian torts textbook Torts: Cases, Legislation and Commentary. She is currently a co-investigator on two Australian Research Council Discovery Projects.




Jodi Gardner is the Brian Coote Chair in Private Law at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on the relationship between the private law and social policy. Professor Gardner's research has covered topics including inequality in contract law, vulnerability in tort law, high-cost credit agreements, the impact of austerity measures, debt collection contracts, the effect of technological developments on equality and financial exclusion, and concurrent liability in tort and contract.


Jonathan Morgan is Professor of English Law at the University of Cambridge, Fellow and Director of Studies in Law, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His research and teaching interests cover Contract, Tort, Human Rights and Constitutional Law-including their historical, theoretical, and economic dimensions. His books include Great Debates in Tort Law (2022) and Contract Law Minimalism (2012).


Sandy Steel is Professor of Law and Philosophy of Law at the University of Oxford, and Lee Shau Kee's Sir Man Kam Lo Fellow in Law, Wadham College, Oxford. His research interests are in private law, particularly torts and remedies, and philosophical issues raised by the legal doctrine. His books include Proof of Causation in Tort Law (CUP, 2015), Omissions in Tort Law (OUP, forthcoming, 2024), and Great Debates in Jurisprudence (with Nick McBride, Palgrave 2018, 2nd edn).

Introduction: Jane Stapleton's Tort Scholarship on Three ContinentsPart I General Themes of Tort Law1. Professor Jane Stapleton and her Dialogue with the Courts, Hon Susan Kiefel2. Unifying Principles within Pluralist Tort Adjudication, Mark A. Geistfeld3. The Torts Scholar as Disaggregator, Anita Bernstein4. Tort and Insurance as Private Law, Jenny Steele and TT Arvind5. Fulfilling the Promise of the Golden Thread?: Vulnerability and Australian Negligence Law, Kylie BurnsPart II Negligence6. The Real Gist of Negligence, Nicholas J McBride7. Duty of Care Factors: Principle and Policy Decisions in the United States, Ellen M Bublick8. What is âReasonable Foreseeabilityâ?, Roderick Bagshaw9. Time to Cut Ties: Reforming the Secondary Victim âControl Mechanismsâ in Pure Psychiatric Injury, Imogen Goold and Catherine Kelly10. An âOpaque Conclusionary Labelâ?: Assumption of Responsibility and Pure Economic Loss, Philip SalesPart III Causation11. Dialogues on Causation with Stapleton, Richard W Wright12. Causation at a Tipping Point: Material Contribution and the âWorse Offâ Question, Gemma Turton13. Making a Difference: Liability and Necessity, Sandy SteelPart IV Other Torts and Liabilities14. Compensation as âConditional Licenceâ for Harmful Activities: An Exploration, Jonathan Morgan15. Damage as an Essential Element in the Economic Torts, John Murphy16. Continuing the Product Liability Illusion, Jodi Gardner and Sarah Green17. The Accident Preference, âUnrigorous Thinkingâ and Injury Compensation Schemes, Genevieve Grant and Harold Luntz