Law

The research paper is on the law of tort as per British University standards. The law of tort is one category of law that deals with civil wrongs. It has been applied in many legal systems of particular countries that have helped maintain the wronged person at his or her original position. When individuals interact, they must be governed by some laws that control their behavior. It is one way of making individuals understand the importance of the others especially when it comes to understanding civil wrong. The paper discusses definition of tort, types of tort and conclusion. The author of the paper is governed by British University standards as it concerns the law of tort.
Definition of a tort
    The word tort is derived from Latin word torquere meaning a wrong. A tort is a civil wrong that is recognized by law.  It is a body of obligations, remedies and rights that is applied by legal systems such as courts when dealing with cases of civil nature that is, between two individuals. Common law practices does not recognize separate actions that are legal in tort but the British legal system has recognized two areas that redress the law of tort that is, trespass and defamation.
Trespass comes in two forms, direct injuries and indirect injuries. Defamation includes slander. Most colonies in America have adopted English common law which has helped to regulate many sectors in the United Sates and other parts of the world. Application of the law of tort aims at providing relief to persons who have been injured by acts of other people that are wrongful. The wrong committed on other individual results to physical or emotional injuries and harm to the affected person that act as a basis for claim.
The law of tort has two parties. One party is the injured legally known as plaintiff and the other party is the person who causes injuries and bears the burden of liability known as defendant or tortfeasor. The two individuals distinguish this form of law from the other form of law known as criminal law. Tort to some extend is a crime punishable through imprisonment but the primary role for applying the law of tort is to return the plaintiff to the original state he or she was at before the injury was inflicted on him or her. This is done inform of refund that is known as damages and the government through legal system acts on behalf of the aggrieved party.
 Damages come in monetary form or in form of injunction which aims at preventing further happening of the tortuous act. The wrong doer is forced to pay the plaintiff any medical expense incurred, pain or suffering and loss of earning capacity within a specified time period. It also aims at terrorizing other people who had the same intention from doing such acts. The injured or plaintiff is given the priority of suing the defendant in the court of law.
    There are three elements that a plaintiff must proof to show that the act was a civil wrong. First, the wronged person must show beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant was under legal obligation to act in a particular fashion. Secondly, the plaintiff must show that the acts of the defendant were breach of legal duty of care and he or she could not contain his or her behavior. Thirdly he or she must demonstrate that the acts of the defendant caused injury or any other form of loss. These elements are the ones that show there is a common difference between the law of contract or criminal law. There are various types of torts that include assault, trespass, negligence, battery, inflicting if emotional distress intentionally and products liability. Combination of common law principles and legislation practices results to law of tort.
In tort actions there is no agreement between the parties to a law suit and private citizens are concerned with initiation of prosecutions. The application of tort law in England and other parts of the world has helped in the development of different sectors such as economic, social and business promotion. In the social aspect, tort law has helped to maintain high degree of discipline in work place. This happens through protection of employees from effects of emotional distress caused by negligent from members in the work place. In business or economic aspect, law of tort helps to protect businesses from the effects of competition. In addition, law of tort has been applied by many countries to protect environment and other natural resources.
 Its application in this aspect provides remedies against individuals and businesses from polluting land, water and air. The remedies against law of tort concerning protection of environment are referred as nuisance. In another area, the law of tort can be used as a way of protecting partners who are intimate. For instance, when a loved individual dies as a result of a civil wrong, the surviving family members can come up with a wrongful death action that makes them recover pecuniary loss. Also when two partners are intimate and one party knowingly transmits sexual disease to the other partner the one who has contaminated the other is liable for a civil wrong punishable by the law of tort.
    The law of tort has basically four objectives which include, first, the law of tort aims at compensating the plaintiff injuries that have been inflicted on him or her by the defendant. Second, the defendant that is, the person who has caused injuries is forced to carry the burden of causing injury to the plaintiff. Thirdly, it aims at restricting individuals who may have such behaviors of causing injury or any other careless mistake in future. Fourth, it aims at vindicating individual rights that have been compromised with by the defendants. Such objectives are recognized when an individual does acts that are hazardous or are out of negligence.
     Torts are classified under three categories such as
Intentional torts for example intentional hitting of a person.
Negligent torts for example when a driver causes an accident because he or she has failed to observe traffic rules.
Strict liability torts for example when an industry produces and sells defective items to consumers.
Other categories of torts include defamation, nuisance, economic torts and invasion of privacy. These torts are handled in courts that recognize law of tort as a state law which has been created by common law judges and statutory law legislations. Tort law has been influenced by restatement of torts that is used by judges and many states as a way of giving rules on civil wrongs. American law Institute has prepared the second restatement of torts that aims at presenting a statement that is orderly in the application of general law in U.S.
Types of torts
International torts
    Intentional tort involves any act that is done to hurt another person and the act is deliberate. It involves deliberately doing away with the legal recognized rules that protect the life of an individual such as rights of body integrity, damage of property, freedom from deception and deliberate hitting of a person by another. Some examples of acts that lead to intentional torts include battery, false imprisonment, trespass, assault, conversion, misrepresentation and fraud and privacy invasion.
These acts happen as a way of harming the intended party. When injury caused on the plaintiff results from reckless behavior then this may not amount to intentional tort. However, there are some situations when the law allows individuals to act intentionally resulting to infliction of injuries to another person. The harm or injury caused by such actions is a way of overcoming some inevitable circumstances such as self preservation. For example, in case of self defense, an individual has the right of applying force even if it results to injuries or harm. Trespass as a form of intentional tort include, trespass to land, conversion or trespass to chattels. Trespass to land is allowable by law when the trespass itself aims at solving some problem like creating road to pass some important goods. Trespass to chattels is also another common tort in many communities.
It occurs when a person uses other persons goods without the consent of that other person. It also happens when an individual maliciously damages goods of another person or an entity. In law, trespass to chattels is agreed in some circumstances. A good example is when a person leaves his or her perishable good under the custody of another person and the owner takes long time to take them, the custodian of the goods can use them as a way of reducing the chances of going bad. It is applicable in the real life situations and the law has the capacity of allowing the trespasser not to pay for damages.
Negligence
    The harm or injury that is inflicted on the plaintiff is as a result of human negligence about law and human rights. Legally negligence can be defined as behavior that results to harm or injury to a person or property. A normal person can change his or her behavior from the normal expected way of living to cause harm to another person or cause damage or loss of property. The law requires that every individual should use common sense when dealing with other individuals. This will encourage individuals to protect the lives of others and protect property from damage.
However the law gives an allowance of some activities that results to injury even a person is very careful. For example an accident can be prevented from happening even if an individual takes a lot of care. These unavoidable accidents are called acts of God and there is no civil liability on the defendant. The defendant can use these acts as a way of defending him or herself when brought in a court of law. Another defense is assumption of risk which aims at preventing the plaintiff from benefiting for any injuries or harm. When the plaintiff does an action with knowledge of its outcome, tort law does not allow such person to benefit for example in gambling it is either you win or you lose if the latter happens the plaintiff has no capacity of reclaiming for damages.
Strict liability
    The law of tort sometimes imposes liability on the defendant without looking whether the person is guilty or did the act out of negligence. Also known as liability without faulty, it is a type of tort that regulates useful activities which results to abnormal life in the society. Examples of these activities include keeping dangerous wild animals in captivity, blasting, transportation of materials that are hazardous or storage of substances that may cause harm or injury to the lives of individuals.
 Strict liability happens in two forms that is, legal and moral fault. Moral fault occurs when an individual causes injury to another person out of deliberate will while legal fault is an artificial conduct that has been set by the government to protect the society. In business individuals must engage themselves in activities that do not harm the other person in the society like raising the prices of basic commodities. The manufacturing industries will be held liable when they produce goods that will harm the health of consumers.