Delict: Attendance and Engagement

Attendance and Engagement

• Ensure check-in to record attendance using [email protected]

On-Campus Attendance

• Open the relevant app or calendar on device.
• Device will find the beacon signal for the location.
• Click the "Check-In" icon in the app.
• Wait until the icon turns solid green, indicating successful check-in.

Online Attendance

• Open the app or calendar.
• Click the "Watch" link for the specific online event (e.g., "Online Introduction to Scientific Enterprise").
• Close the confirmation screen.
• Access the lesson on regular device.

Introduction to Delict

• The module organiser is Nicola Tully

Scots Law of Delict

• Delict pertains to legal duties to avoid harm.
• The law imposes a responsibility for making amends when harm occurs.
• Conduct is considered actionable in a civil court when a pursuer has encountered a legally recognised loss.
• Delict is concerned with compensating for losses.
• Not all losses are compensable.

Key General Principle of Delict - 'Blameworthiness'

• Primary concern is determining the creation of an ex lege obligation because of wrongful conduct.
• Delictual liability arises from actionable loss/harm due to wrongdoing.
• The pursuer is the party that has suffered the loss/harm.
• The defender is the party who has allegedly caused the loss/harm.
• Intentional harm involves the defender intending to harm the pursuer.
• Unintentional harm doesn't require the defender to have intended the harm.

Distinguishing Delict from Other Areas of Law

• Criminal Law: Focuses on righting wrongs, contrasting criminal wrongs with civil wrongs and involving punishment versus compensation, some concepts overlap but rules differ.
• Contract Law: Focuses on obligations, differentiating between voluntary and involuntary obligations.
• Tort Law: Tort law is a similar principle to delict in other jurisdictions, with some English cases and principles used in Scots law.

Basis for a Delictual Claim

• The general rule is no liability without fault (Culpa).
• Culpa (fault or blame) is required unless strict liability applies.
• A delictual claim basis' includes: damnum (loss), injuria (wrongful conduct), and causal link between damage and injuria.
• See: Kay's Tutor v Ayrshire & Arran Health Board 1987 SC(HL) 145

Reparation

• Concerns the response to a loss
• Reparation involves making good the loss/damage caused.
• The obligation to make reparation stems from wrongdoing and is legally imposed.
• Includes physical, mental/nervous injury, property damage, derivative financial loss, and reputation damage.
• It typically excludes 'pure economic loss', with some exceptions.
• See: McFarlane v Tayside Health Board 2000 SC (HL) 1

Damnum

• Damnum concerns loss, harm, injury, etc.(the wrong suffered), which includes any unjustified and non-trivial invasion of a protected (reparable) interest.
• This invasion constitutes a loss which include: Physical integrity and personal wellbeing, Ownership and possession, Liberty, Reputation, Privacy, and Rights incidental to ownership of heritable property, i.e. the right to exclusive possession or comfortable enjoyment.

Injuria

• (The wrong done) To be reparable, loss must be caused.
• How the loss was caused is with:
  • Culpably, either intentionally (intending harm to the victim or deliberately, in knowledge of the harmful consequences or indifference to them), or
  • Negligently (unintentional)

Grounds of Liability

• The ground or basis on which an action will proceed depends on the form taken by the loss complained of and the way in which it has been occasioned.
• The rules of liability and available defenses differ according to the ground.
• Specific delicts examples include nuisance, assault, and defamation.
• There is a general action raised in claims arising from negligence and claims based generally on wrongfulness rather than on any specific delict.

Specific 'delicts' in Scots Law?

• There are many identified specific delicts.
• There is no exhaustive list of named delicts in the law of Scotland, where conduct appears wrongful, the law of Scotland will afford a remedy even if there has not been any previous instance of remedy being given in similar circumstances.
• Micosta S.A v Shetland Islands Council 1986 SLT 193, at 198

Determining the Ground of Action

• Personal injury and property harm caused negligently =
• Personal injury caused intentionally =
• Harm to reputation =
• Affront to dignity =
• Stress, anxiety, annoyance =
• Deprivation of liberty =
• Interference with comfortable enjoyment of heritable property =
• Economic loss caused negligently =
• Economic loss caused intentionally =

Statutory Regimes

• Some circumstances invoke a statutory regime which may operate along with or instead of the common law.
• This may include personal injury, death or damage/destruction of property caused by:
  • A danger due to the state of premises or to things done on premises – Occupiers' Liability (Scotland) Act 1960
  • An animal – Animals (Scotland) Act 1987
  • A defective product – Consumer Protection Act 1987

Key Understandings

• Definition and context of delict law within Scots law.
• Key concepts and general principles of delictual liability.
• Significance of 'culpa' and 'liability'.
• Next: Negligence I (Duty of Care)