Atiyah's Accidents, Compensation and the Law

Now in its ninth edition, Atiyah's Accidents, Compensation and the Law explores the recent and continuous developments in personal injury law by applying social context to the relevant legal principles. Those principles remain in need of radical reform. Updates to the text include discussion of the major changes to the way compensation is calculated and claimed, evolving funding arrangements for personal injury litigation, and dramatic shifts in the claims management industry. Suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students taking courses in tort law, this new edition balances theory, practice and context. It draws on new legislation, research and case law to offer the reader thought-provoking examples and analysis.

Part I. The Issues in Perspective: 1. Introduction: surveying the field; Part II. The Tort System in Theory: 2. Fault as a basis of liability; 3. The scope of the tort of negligence; 4. Departures from the fault principle; 5. Causation and remoteness of damage; 6. Damages for personal injury and death; 7. An appraisal of the fault principle; Part III. The Tort System in Operation: 8. Claims and claimants; 9. Tortfeasors and insurers; 10. Settlements and trials; Part IV. Other Compensation Systems: 11. First-party insurance; 12. Compensation for criminal injuries; 13. The social security system; 14. Other forms of assistance; Part V. The Overall Picture: 15. A plethora of systems; 16. The cost of compensation and who pays it; 17. The functions of compensation systems; Part VI. The Future: 18. Accident compensation in the twenty-first century.

Atiyah's Accidents, Compensation and the Law is the only book written in a Commonwealth jurisdiction that examines the accident compensation system in its broader social context. It provides the reader with a significantly richer understanding of the relevant law than they would obtain from books that concentrate on just the legal principles.

Peter Cane is Senior Research Fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge and Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Law at the Australian National University College of Law.
James Goudkamp is Professor of the Law of Obligations at the University of Oxford.