Construction, Public Bodies and Liability in Negligence: Fair, Just and Reasonable?

Philip Britton

May 2001

A paper based on the second prize winning entry in the Millennium Hudson
Prize Competition, presented to the Society of Construction Law in London
on 1st May 2001.

The author considers what remedies are available against public bodies
if in exercising their statutory powers affecting construction they cause
damage, injury or loss. He looks at the tort liability of public bodies
a decade or more after Murphy v Brentwood District Council.

Introduction - Contract and tort claims (issue 1) - Other
tort claims (issue 3) - Claims in negligence: the 1990s -
Effect on claims against public bodies - Escaping the limitations
of Murphy - Claiming in negligence, but via Hedley Byrne -
Claims in contract? - Claims in negligence: the millennium approaches
- Enter European human rights law - Other recent cases -
Further case law from Strasbourg - Conclusions.

The author:. Philip Britton LLB BCL is Director of the Centre of Construction
Law & Management, King's College London.

Text 21 pages.

PDF file size: 169k