Eduqas A-Level Law A150QS
Parliamentary and European Law Making
Delegated Legislation
Statutory Interpretation
Judicial Precedent
The Civil Courts and Civil Process
The Criminal Process
Legal Personnel
Access to Justice and Funding
Contract: Rules and Theory of Contract LawContract
Contract: Essential Requirements and FormationContract
Contract: Express and Implied TermsContract
Contract: Misrepresentation and Economic DuressContract
Contract: Discharge of ContractContract
Contract: RemediesContract
Tort: Rules and Theory of Tort LawTort
Tort: NegligenceTort
Tort: Occupiers' LiabilityTort
Tort: Torts Connected to LandTort
Tort: Vicarious LiabilityTort
Tort: Defences and RemediesTort
Criminal Law: Rules and TheoryCriminal
Criminal Law: General Elements of LiabilityCriminal
Criminal Law: Offences Against the PersonCriminal
Criminal Law: Property OffencesCriminal
Criminal Law: Capacity DefencesCriminal
Criminal Law: Necessity Defences and Preliminary OffencesCriminal
Human Rights: Rules and TheoryHuman rights
Human Rights: Protection of Rights and Freedoms in the UKHuman rights
Human Rights: Convention ProvisionsHuman rights
Human Rights: Restrictions on Convention RightsHuman rights
Human Rights: EnforcementHuman rights
Human Rights: ReformHuman rights
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.
What does retributive justice mean?
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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