Causation in Negligence

204 Pages·2015·13.324 MB·English

by  Sarah Green

CAUSATION IN NEGLIGENCE
The principal objective of this book is simple: to provide a timely and effective
means of navigating the current maze of case law on causation, in order that the
solutions to causal problems might more easily be reached, and the law relating to
them more easily understood. The need for this has been increasingly evident in
recent judgments dealing with causal issues: in particular, it seems to be ever
harder to distinguish between the different 'categories' of causation and, conse
quently, to identify the legal test to be applied on any given set of facts. Causation
in Negligence will make such identification easier, both by clarifying the para
meters of each category and mapping the current key cases accordingly, and by
providing one basic means of analysis which will make the resolution of even the
thorniest of causal issues a straightforward process. The causal inquiry in negli
gence seems to have become a highly complicated and confused area of the law. As
this book demonstrates, this is unnecessary and easily remedied.

Causation in Negligence
Sarah Green
• HART•
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2015
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© Sarah Green, 2015
Sarah Green has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
to be identified as the author of this work.
Hart Publishing is an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing pie.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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ISBN: 978-1-84946-331-7
ISBN (ePDF): 978-1-78225-520-8
For my boys

PREFACE
Half my lifetime ago, I was asked in an interview a question about duplicative
causation (as I would now recognise it). The answer seemed obvious to me at the
time and, a few weeks later, I surmised from the outcome of that interview that
my answer had been correct. The intervening years have taught me how na'ive that
conclusion was, but have not moved me from my instinctive response. This book
is an extended account of that response.
But For the following, however, it is a book which would not have been written:
St Hilda's College, for being a congenial and supportive place to work, and for
providing some of the most glorious contemplative scenery in Oxford. Particular
thanks are due to my colleagues Konstanze von Papp, Dev Gangjee, Andrea
Dolcetti, Selina Todd, Rachel Condry, Susan Jones, Katherine Clarke, Lucia Nixon,
Suzie Hancock, Jonathan Williams and Julia Bradley; to Sheila Forbes for being as
empathetic a Principal as one could wish for, and to Peter Tullett, John Hamilton,
Mike Newell, Andy Oakley, Maggie Bunting, Linda Inness, Elaine Sumner, Richard
Kirkland, Graham Smith, Selina Collingwood and Jamie Franklin for making the
place what it is. I also owe a debt of gratitude to several of my students, who not
only put up with hearing about this book over the course of a couple of years, but
were also willing to discuss various causal problems above and beyond those usu
ally posed by undergraduate study: Ben Foster, Michael Poolton, Akshay Chauhan
and Christian Goulart Mc Nerney deserve particular mention for the insights they
were willing to share.
Working in the University of Oxford Law Faculty is a privilege and a pleasure,
and thanks are due to many fellow members, past and present: Louise Gullifer,
Ben Mcfarlane, Roderick Bagshaw, Donal Nolan, Simon Douglas, Imogen Goold,
Becca Williams, Mindy Chen-Wishart, James Goudkamp, Paul Cowie, Joshua
Getzler, Sandy Meredith, Timothy Endicott, Caroline Norris, Michelle Robb,
Margaret Watson, Paul Burns and Bento de Sousa for making my life either easier,
or more interesting, or both. Lord Hoffmann, Paul S Davies, Andy Burrows and
Rob Stevens were all good enough to field specific questions, and to refuse to agree
with me on several issues. It is no exaggeration to say that this manuscript would
have been submitted many months later, and would have made any copy-editor
run for the hills, had it not been for the genius and attention to detail of the inde
fatigable Jodi Gardner.
Beyond Oxford, I have gained much from discussions with Richard Wright,
John Murphy, Alan Beever, Ken Oliphant, Jenny Steele, Leigh-Ann Mulcahy,
Adam Heppinstall, Sir Jeremy Stuart-Smith, Sandy Steel, Jonathan Morgan, Jamie
Lee, Claire Mdvor, Nick McBride, Graham Virgo, Matt Dyson and Bob Sullivan.
vin Prefa ce
I am especially grateful to Alex Broadbent for his intellectual generosity, to Mark
Ingham and Daniel Horsley for checking my maths, to Robert Miles for his ongo
ing friendship and correspondence, and to Daniel Magnowski for (always) provid
ing the soundtrack. Thanks also to Rachel Turner and to the team (new and old)
at Hart/Bloomsbury.
Richard Hart was a huge source of encouragement at the inception of this proj
ect, and provided invaluable advice and reassurance throughout: he remained
apparently convinced that this was a good idea, even when I wasn't.
I owe much to Jane Stapleton and to Paul Davies for first asking me the question
that I am still thinking about nearly two decades later, and for the inspiration and
guidance that they have provided, both during my years at Balliol, and ever since.
Nowhere in this book am I as fearful of omission as I am here, and this list is
inevitably incomplete.
Finally, thank you Alfie and Benjamin, for reminding me that this book is no
more than that. And thank you Al, for everything.