Sport Law: Introduction to Tort Law

• VIA3003 Sport Law, Semester 1, 2024/2025 covers the introduction to the Law of Tort, lectured by Assoc Prof Dr Nadhratul Wardah Salman from the Faculty of Law, University Malaya.
• Public Law concerns the relationship between the state and its citizens and includes constitutional, administrative, and criminal law.
• Private or Civil Law concerns the rights and duties of individuals towards each other and includes contract, tort, property, trusts and family law.
• Criminal Law deals with offenses against the state, aiming to preserve order by punishing offenders.
• Civil Law addresses disputes between private individuals, aiming to remedy suffered wrongs.
• In a Criminal Law case, a prosecutor prosecutes a defendant, while in Civil Law, a claimant sues a defendant.
• The standard of proof in Criminal Law requires proving a case beyond a reasonable doubt and in Civil Law, establishing a case on the balance of probabilities.
• Examples of Criminal Law include murder, theft, and rape and examples of Civil Law include contract, tort, trust, and land disputes.
• Law of Tort is equivalent to Tort Law.
• Tort Law encompasses every case heard in civil court, excluding contractual disputes.
• Lecture outline includes: the meaning of tort, the general elements of tort law, the aims of tort law, the interests that tort law protects, and sources of tort law in Malaysia.

Meaning of Tort

• Tort is a civil wrong independent of contract, derived from the Latin word "tortus" meaning twisted or wrong.
• Committing a tort involves doing something wrong to someone else.
• Winfield defines tortious liability as arising from the breach of a duty primarily fixed by law, which is towards persons generally, and its breach is redressable by an action for compensation in the form of unliquidated damages.
• Unliquidated damages refer to the amount determined by the court.
• Examples of tort include a newspaper publishing a false story about a politician, a student injured by a negligently driven car, unlawful detainment, injury due to technical faults in a car and harm from a doctor's wrong prescription.
• Tort occurs when one party suffers harm, damage, injury, or loss due to another party's action.
• Harm can manifest as physical injury, psychological trauma, financial loss, or damage to one's reputation.

Elements of Tort Law

• Three elements must co-exist for an act to be considered a tort: a wrongful act, damage, and legal remedy.
• A wrongful act is any action deemed wrongful in the eyes of the law and includes attacking or defaming someone, trespassing, or causing fear of personal safety.
• The law identifies wrongful acts as those that breach legal rights and a legal remedy will not be available if the law does not recognize an act as wrongful.
• A breach may infringe on the right in rem (Jus in Rem) which is a right against the whole world.
• Everyone has the right not to be defamed worldwide, injured by a car driver, illegally detained, or have their property entered without permission.
• Acts not recognized as wrongful by law do not provide a remedy, such as being splashed by a car driving through puddles.
• A wrongful act must result in "damage", which doesn't always mean physical or financial loss, but can be recognized by law.
• Damage includes loss of reputation in defamation cases or breach of privacy in trespass cases, even without physical injury or financial loss.
• Legal damage is presumed if a recognized right is infringed.
• A legal remedy must be available for an act to be considered a tort.
• Moral or religious wrongs typically aren't covered, although lies in commercial dealings might be considered fraud and are actionable in the contract.
• The wrong must fall under cases for which a legal remedy is applicable, like civil action for damages or an injunction to prevent further defamatory statements.

Aims of Tort Law

• The aims of tort law are deterrence and compensation.
• Deterrence involves using the remedy as a threat to prevent people from offending.
• Compensation aims to put the victim in the same position as if the tort had not occurred.

Interests Protected by Tort Law

• Personal security through trespass actions (assault, battery), negligence (medical negligence), and psychiatric extensions (nervous shock).
• Property interests in land are protected by trespass, nuisance, and strict liability.
• Interests in goods are protected by trespass and conversion.
• Reputation is safeguarded by the law of defamation.
• Economic loss includes financial damage from negligence also pure economic loss is difficult to claim.

Sources of Tort Law in Malaysia

• English common law comes from S. 3, Civil Law Act 1956.
• Local judicial decisions comes from local courts incorporating English common law principles.
• Local statute comes from the Defamation Act 1957 (Revised 1983).

An overview of tort law within the context of Sport Law (VIA3003), Semester 1, 2024/2025. It distinguishes between public and private law, criminal and civil law and outlines the standard of proof in criminal versus civil cases.