Tort Law: Text, Cases & Materials

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Author: Jenny Steele

Price: £35.99

Edition: 1st Edition (May 2007)

ISBN: 978-0-19-924885-8

Buy from OUP: Click Here

For students studying compulsory subjects like tort law, it is often difficult to pick the right text because of the sheer number of competing texts.  Being a new entrant to an already competitive market, Jenny Steele's Tort Law: Text, Cases & Materials needs to have a unique selling point to distinguish it from similar texts.  For the reasons set out in this review, it has meaning it should be a serious contender for anyone studying tort law.

Written by Jenny Steele, an experienced academic with considerable expertise in the law of obligations, Tort Law: Text, Cases & Materials is split into seven parts: introductory; intentional interferences; the tort of negligence; general matters; nuisance and duties relating to land; defamation and privacy; miscellaneous liabilities.  Each part is then sub-divided (except for the first two parts) into separate chapters.  For example, the final part includes chapters on product liability, breach of statutory duty and trespass to land and goods and conversion (the latter of which are extremely important torts in practice).  Similarly, the part on general matters includes chapters on limitation, contribution and vicarious liability.

One of the biggest problems with text, cases and materials book is when the cases and materials break up the text's flow.  Fortunately, Tort Law: Text, Cases & Materials does not suffer from this problem and wonderfully weaves cases and materials into the substantive text.  Readers will find the extracts are superbly selected: being both the right length and extremely relevant.  Similarly, Steele's written style is enjoyable and engaging.  Complex issues, particularly involving wrongful interference with goods (which is notorious for being a thorny area of law), are easily explained in relatively short and manageable sections.  Readers should not, therefore, be put off by the text's size! 

Being a new entrant into an already congested market, Tort Law: Text, Cases & Materials has to be unique.  For my part, it is because it provides an accessible text and impressively weaves together text and expertly selected cases and materials.  It also delves into torts often ignored by similar texts including conversion and breach of statutory duty.  It size and price, being towards the higher end of the undergraduate market, may unnecessarily put off some readers but those who buy and use the text will undoubtedly benefit.  It is an ideal text for those who do not have easy access to a fully stocked law library and a very useful text for practitioners.  It will occupy a prominent position on my shelves and will, no doubt, be a favourite tort law text for years to come.

Reviewed on 6 April 2010

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