Tort Law in United Kingdom relates to civil wrongs. Unlike criminal wrong, Torts or civil wrongs are not the concern of the State and thus the State cannot enforce the law on the wrongdoers in a court as it is practiced in a criminal case. A civil wrong, in other words, is the breach of a duty imposed by law which entitles an aggrieved person to sue for damages. Tort is a civil action initiated by one person against another and is tried in a court in the presence of a judge and sometimes with a jury. The term ‘Torts’ has been adopted in the law of England and those territories and dominions of the British Empire where the Common law is in force in the civil affairs. The most important feature of a tort is that it violates a general duty imposed by law and it is a private right of action. Influenced by the Roman law, the English legal system, for a long time, was based on a closed system of selected torts of trespass, battery and conversion etc. Alternatively, the Continental legal systems have adopted more open systems of tortious liability. There are diverse categories of torts, such as Nuisance, Defamation, Tresspass, Deceit, Negligence, etc. Amongst them, the tort of Negligence is gaining in importance by providing a wide scope of protection, particularly after the decision of the Donoghue v. Stevenson case where it was held that the ‘duty of care’, ‘breach of duty’ and ‘cause of action’have to be established in order to prove liability in negligence.
