Contemporary Australian Tort Law

Joanna Kyriakakis is a Senior Lecturer at Monash University Faculty of Law. Joanna teaches and coordinates the Torts Law subjects for the LLB and JD degrees, as well as teaching elective programs in the areas of International Criminal Law and Animal Law. Her research to date has focused upon corporate accountability for human rights abuses and international criminal law, publishing on a range of related issues in leading books and journals. Tina Popa is a Senior Lecturer at the Graduate School of Business and Law at RMIT University. Tina has taught tort law for eight years in the JD program, and presently coordinates and teaches tort law in both the undergraduate and postgraduate law programs. Tina's research interests are in tort law, health law and alternative/appropriate dispute resolution, with her doctoral research exploring the challenges in litigation and mediation of medical negligence disputes. Tina's research has been published in leading Australian and international peer-reviewed journals, and she has been a visiting scholar at universities in Canada and Belgium. Tina has extensive experience in the legal industry and has also worked on industry research collaborations, which underpin her approach to research and teaching. Tina is a passionate law teacher committed to implementing innovative and authentic learning design. Between February 2018 and June 2019, Tina held the role of GSBL Online Learning Coordinator, encouraging and supporting law staff to strive for excellence in online teaching and learning. Tina has co-authored journal articles on blended learning design in law teaching, including presenting this work at international law teaching conferences. Tina has been invited to present her teaching innovations as Keynote Speaker at the 2019 Teaching & Learning Symposium at the University of Auckland. Tina's work has been recognised through several teaching awards, including the 2018 Vice-Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Contributions to Learning and Teaching (Early Career, Higher Education) and the 2022 Learning & Teaching Enabling Award (awarded jointly with colleagues) from RMIT's College of Business & Law. In 2020, she was recognised as 'Academic of the Year' at the Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards. Francine Rochford is an Associate Professor in the Law School at La Trobe University. She currently coordinates and teaches the Torts Law subject in the LLB (Hons) degree as well as teaching into several electives including Education Law, Water Law and Planning Law. Her research has focused on tort law, water law and environmental law, including tortious liability for climate change. Natalia Szablewska is Professor in Law and Society at The Open University and an Adjunct Professor at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Cambodia. Natalia has over 20 years of professional experience in public policy, research and academia in five countries, during which time she has taught a number of subjects across various jurisdictions, including tort law, constitutional law, public international law and international humanitarian law. She has published extensively for academic and non-academic audiences, and her academic work has appeared in leading journals and with publishers in a number of disciplines. Natalia currently serves on the Modern Slavery Leadership Advisory Group to the New Zealand Government and as a Chair of Business and Human Rights Subcommittee and Executive Management Committee Member at Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. She practised human rights law in a non-governmental organisation in Russia ('Russian Justice Initiative'), litigating before the European Court of Human Rights. Xiaobo Zhao is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law and Justice, University of Southern Queensland. He worked as a lecturer in law and legal consultant for several years before taking up his current position. He has taught across a range of law courses for LLB and LLM programs since 2012. He is the course leader of Torts, Water Resource Law and the Sustainable Environmental Governance Research Programme at University of Southern Queensland. He is a Senior Research Fellow of the Research Institute of Environmental Law (RIEL), Wuhan University. His research interests focus on comparative environmental law, contaminated land law and torts. He is also the author and co-author of several law books, peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Jason Taliadoros is an Associate Professor in the Deakin Law School, Deakin University. Jason teaches and coordinates Torts Law units for the LLB and JD degrees and an elective unit in Personal Injuries for the LLB. His research focuses on legal history, torts, and statutory compensation schemes and he has published in these areas in leading books and journals. Jason formerly worked as a legal practitioner in the areas of personal injuries, workers' compensation and insurance and commercial litigation. Darren O'Donovan is Senior Lecturer at La Trobe Law School, Melbourne. Darren holds a BCL (Hons), and a PhD from University College Cork, Ireland, where he also lectured from 2009 to 2012. Darren's main specialisation is in administrative law. He has written extensively on rights, oversight and public administration, including the book Law and Public Administration in Ireland (co-authored with Dr Fiona Donson). Much of Darren's work has reflected upon the centrality of non-judicial review bodies and first-instance decision-makers to deliver administrative justice. Reflecting these themes, Darren is currently undertaking research projects in relation to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Lowell Bautista is Associate Professor at the School of Law and a Staff Member at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong. He has taught the Law of Torts at the University of Wollongong since 2017. Lowell is recognised for his expertise in the Law of the Sea, particularly for his contributions in the area of territorial and maritime disputes in the Asia‐Pacific, especially the South China Sea. He is a lawyer with over two decades of experience in legal and policy research, teaching and consultancy. He holds a BA and LLB degrees from the University of the Philippines, an LLM degree from Dalhousie University, and a PhD from the University of Wollongong. His areas of research expertise primarily involves multi‐faceted aspects of international law, law of the sea, ocean governance, maritime security, and comparative law, on which topics he has also published.

1. Introduction to the law of torts; 2. Duty of care; 3. Breach of duty of care; 4. Damage: factual causation and scope of liability; 5. Defences to negligence; 6. Trespass to the person; 7. Trespass to land and trespass to personal property; 8. Defences to and remedies for trespass; 9. Nuisance; 10. Vicarious liability and non-delegable duty; 11. Defamation; 12. Remedies; 13. Torts arising from statutory duties and powers.