levo

Tort: Rules and Theory of Tort Law

Retributive justice and deterrence in tort

  • 3 things to know
  • Components 2 and 3

Overview

Retributive justice and aggravated damages.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

When may exemplary damages be awarded in tort?

Key term

What does retributive justice mean?

Key term

Why is retributive justice usually said to belong to criminal law rather than tort?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What does retributive justice mean?

    Model answer

    Retributive justice holds that a wrongdoer deserves a penalty proportionate to the wrong committed. Retribution looks backwards at what the defendant did rather than forwards to repairing loss.

  2. 2

    Why is retributive justice usually said to belong to criminal law rather than tort?

    Model answer

    Punishing the guilty is the purpose of a criminal sentence. An award in tort is measured by the claimant's loss and not by how blameworthy the defendant was.

  3. 3

    Which award in the law of tort comes closest to retribution?

    Model answer

    Exemplary or punitive damages come closest to retribution, because such an award punishes rather than compensates. Exemplary damages are confined to a few narrow categories of case.

  4. 4

    When may exemplary damages be awarded in tort?

    Model answer

    Rookes v Barnard [1964] confined exemplary damages to oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional acts by servants of the government. Exemplary damages may also follow where the defendant calculated that the profit would exceed the compensation. A statute may expressly allow them in a third group of cases.

  5. 5

    What are aggravated damages, and how do they differ from exemplary damages?

    Model answer

    Aggravated damages compensate the claimant for injury to feelings caused by the manner of the wrong. Exemplary damages go beyond compensation altogether and punish the defendant.

  6. 6

    Give an argument that the law of tort should have a punitive element.

    Model answer

    Supporters argue that a purely compensatory award lets a rich defendant treat the payment as a cost of doing business. A punitive element would mark society's condemnation of deliberate wrongdoing.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Parliamentary and European Law Making
Delegated Legislation
Statutory Interpretation
Judicial Precedent

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

The court sits in .
StrasbourgLondonParis

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AAn interim injunction restrains publication before trial.
BPublication cannot be undone.
CAn injunction may be the only effective remedy.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

A Public Bill changes the general law.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Tort: Rules and Theory of Tort Law, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.