Advanced Torts (LAW206H1S)

This seminar course will allow students to engage in a detailed analysis of tort law. The course will initially review the basic principles of tort law, and other aspects of practice which intersect with tort law (i.e. Rules of Civil Procedure). Thereafter, each seminar will explore a different area of tort law, with a particular focus on new, emerging, and undecided areas of law.
Areas to cover will include:
• Mass torts: Students will examine the emerging area of mass torts, with a focus on class proceedings.
• Medical torts: Students will examine issues including:
To what extent does the law recognise the tort of wrongful birth?
Do physicians owe a duty of care to people other than their patients?
Are physicians liable in tort if they refuse to offer medically futile care?
• Economic torts: Students will examine issues including the emerging trends in fiduciary duty law, directors’ liability, shareholder rights, and misrepresentation.
• Emotional torts: Students will examine emerging trends in judicial treatment of negligent and intentional emotional torts.
• Damages: Students will examine emerging trends in judicial treatment of damages including Family Law Act claims and claims for loss of inheritance.
Throughout the course, the students will be encouraged to draw linkages between tort law and actual practice (for example, exploring the interplay between Rule 20 motions for summary judgment and new torts).