Tort Law: Purposes and Individual Rights

• Royal University of Law and Economics offers an English Language Based Bachelor of Law degree with a Tort Law course in Spring 2025 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Purposes of the Law

• The law controls activities and prevents violations through regulation.
• Regulation specifies what individuals must do/have, what they can do/have, and what they must not do.
• Law sanctions and punishes violations through warnings, reprimands, injunctions, suspension/revocation of permits/licenses, fines, and imprisonment.
• Compensation is sought for victims.

Individual Rights

• The Kingdom of Cambodia recognizes and respects human rights as stipulated in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other related covenants and conventions, including those pertaining to women and children.
• Khmer citizens have equal rights, freedoms, and obligations before the law, regardless of race, color, sex, language, religion, political opinion, national origin, social status, wealth, or other status.
• Personal freedoms must not infringe upon the freedoms of others. The exercise of these freedoms must comply with legal conditions.
• Individual rights include those related to life, body, health, freedom, name, honor, reputation, and privacy.
• One can demand the cessation of unlawful infringements/potential infringements of individual rights.
• Individuals can demand the removal of results from infringing actions when infringements persist with possible removal of the results.
• Article 13 of the Civil Code indicates that Articles 11 (Right to injunction) and 12 (Right to demand elimination of effect of infringing act) do not prevent a person whose personal right has been infringed from seeking damages.

Torts Defined

• "Tort" is a term borrowed from French by English-speaking lawyers.
• A tort is a wrong.
• Committing a tort involves doing wrong to another.
• A tort is a legal wrong, though not every wrong is a tort. Specifically, it's a special kind of wrong.
• Torts involve actions that constitute a legal (private/civil) wrong.
• Torts cause harm, leading laws/courts to impose civil liability for the damage caused.
• Tort law is civil wrong and redress law i.e if a tort occurs, the injured party has the legal right to seek damages equivalent to the injury's value.
• Damages are given to restore the injured party to their original condition.
• A wrongdoer or tortfeasor is a defendant.
• A victim is wronged by the tortfeasor and can bring a lawsuit to demand compensation.
• Liability refers to the tortfeasor’s obligations to provide compensation.

Examples of Torts

• Hitting someone.
• Shouting to someone that you will hit him/her.
• Damaging someone’s property.
• Giving car key to drunk person.
• Hack email.
• Speeding during bad weather.
• Selling a can of beer with a dead snail in it.
• A night club guard hitting a customer.
• Conducting business with dangerous activities (mining, explosive, chemicals etc).
• Harms caused by animals (e.g. cows on road).
• Damage caused by public officials.
• Selling defective products that cause harm.
• Building a hall blocking road.
• Defamation.
• Entering property without consent.
• Fetus injury.

Relevant Civil Code Provisions

• Article 10 discusses Personal Rights- rights to life, personal safety, health, freedom, identity, dignity, privacy, and other personal benefits or interests and what one is entitled to if those rights are violated.
• Article 13 discusses Right to Damages- A person may seek damages for harm suffered from infringement of their personal rights for tortious acts.
• Article 309 defines Tortious act.
• Article 742 defines Intent and negligence.
• Article 743 relates to Elements of general tort and burden of proof.
• Article 742 covers Definitions of intent and negligence (Intentional & Negligence).
• Article 746 covers Liability of persons having a duty to supervise.
• Article 747 covers Employer's liability.
• Article 748 covers Tortious act of legal entities.
• Article 749 covers Tortious act of public official.
• Article 750 covers Liability of animal possessor (Strict Liability).
• Article 752 covers Liability for dangerous item (Strict Liability).
• Article 751 covers Product liability.
• Article 757 covers Defamation.
• Article 140 (2) and 138-139 relates to Nuisance.
• Article 9 covers Tortious act against fetus.
• Article 753 covers Liability for structure affixed to land.
• Article 267 covers Damage for tort against usufruct.
• Article 282 (2) covers Damage for tort against right of use and right of residence (same as art. 267).
• Article 239 (236-238) covers Damage for tort against possessory right.
• Article 327 covers Tortious act of interference with contractual relation.
• Article 756 provides Grounds for excuse from illegality or responsibility.
• Article 755 covers Definitions of justifiable self-defense and emergency escape.
• Article 764 covers Contributory negligence.
• Article 745 covers Lack of competence to assume liability.
• Article 765 covers Extinctive prescription.
• Article 757 relates to Principle of monetary damages & exceptions.
• Article 761 relates to Damages for bodily harm.
• Article 759 relates to Damages for harm caused by loss or destruction of a thing.
• Article 744 relates to Damages for non-economic harm.
• Article 762 relates to Damages for mental or emotional distress caused by injury to honor or reputation.
• Article 760 relates to Damages for wrongful death.
• Article 758 covers Calculation of damages.
• Article 754 covers Joint tort.
• Article 469 covers Set-off of obligation arising out of tort.
• Article 763 covers Set-off of losses and benefits.
• Article 764 covers Set-off for contributory negligence.

Remedies in Tort Law

• Compensation (damage).
• Injunction - to cease tortious conduct.
• Restitution - to return gains wrongfully obtained by tort conduct.
• Punitive Damage – for serious case, to deter further misconduct.

Relevant Articles

• Article 236 discusses Causing involuntary bodily harm- causing an injury to another person constitutes an offense of causing involuntary bodily harm if it results from negligence, recklessness or carelessness causing a disability to the victim for a period of eight days or more.
• Article 217 discusses Intentional acts of violence.
• Article 305 discusses definition of defamation.
• Article 253 discusses Arrest, detention and unlawful confinement.

Incoherency of Tort Law

• Tort law isn't really a particular branch of law, but rather an idea about civil injustices.
• It encompasses all sorts of wrongs that manifest in an unlimited amount of ways, so it is mostly case by case.
• Tort law has connections to criminal, contract, property, and regulatory law.
• Most of tort law is common law.
• Actual statutes on torts are relatively brief - leaving judges to decide based on the facts of cases.
• Most lawyers do not specialize in tort law as a whole.
• Lawyers usually prefer to specialize in personal injury, property damage, medical malpractice, product liability, defamation & privacy, or negligence.

Torts vs. Laws and Regulations (Statutes)

• Tort is a concept of wrongs that exist in various areas of the law versus Various specific laws and regulations.
• Tort cases look backward: decide conduct that has already taken place was wrongful versus Statute looks forward: laws & regulations are always formulated in advance.
• Tort standards are usually broad and general until a specific case is decided, however, statute is often specific and detailed.
• Tort law aims specifically at compensating the victim of a wrong by awarding damages versus Statute does not ordinarily aim at compensation, but control and prevent in general.

Torts vs. Contract

• A key difference is that the parties to a tort typically lack any pre-agreement versus contract duties created by promises of the parties.
• Tort duties are created by courts in accordance with the law and regulations and imposed as rules of law, not agreed by parties in advance versus voluntary action wherein each party agrees to be bound to certain duties and obligations.

Tort Liability

• Tort liability is an obligation.
• Obligations based on intention of parties can be contracts and unilateral legal acts.
• Obligations created by law include Management of affairs without mandate, Unjust enrichment, Tort, and Provision of law.

Special Charters of Tort Law

• Factual Essence- There is unlawful wrongdoing that causes harms. The victim has a corresponding potential for compensation/relief and that defendant has potential for civil liability.
• Legal Elements- A legal right resides with the plaintiff, A duty resides in the defendant; and the Plaintiff sustained damage as result of defendant's violation of their duty.
• Tort law is litigation law. This means the matter is typically resolved in a jury-judge system.
• Torts are very fluid based on each factual setting and the status of the parties.

Torts vs. Criminal Offenses- Purpose and Substance

• Torts are primarily used to vindicate (find justice and compensation for) individual victims and their rights. Criminal law is to vindicate the state’s interests in deterring crime.
• Secondarily, torts reinforce public standards of behavior. Likewise, criminal prosecutions are to impose justice by punishing the perpetrator.
• Intent is also required in torts but normally negligence plus harm is sufficient whereas a specific intent is the most fundamental basis for criminal liability.
• Harm must have happened (by fact or deemed by law) in torts for there to be liability; actual harm is not necessary in criminal prosecution (attempt can qualify).

Torts vs. Criminal Offenses - Procedures

• Torts are brought by aggrieved individuals under civil procedure law. Criminal prosecutions are initiated and pursued by the government under criminal procedure law
• The standard of evidence in tort is preponderance of evidence. Requirement for level or proof in a criminal matter in order to convict or find the defendant guilty. Is substantially higher and more difficult to prove criminal matter standard.

Presumption of Innocence

• Prosecution in a criminal matter bears the burden of proving a charge and subsequently guaranteeing that no guilt can be presumed against an individual until the charge has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
• Much higher stakes apply in criminal cases- a person found guilty can be deprived of liberty, or in extreme cases, life, as well as suffering the collateral consequences and social stigma attached to a conviction.
• The burden of proof in criminal matters should therefore be significantly higher than in civil matters.
• Strict Construction implies that the text of a provision in a statute should be applied as it is written. Rule of Lenity applies.

O.J. Simpson Case Example

• O.J. Simpson's case involved a criminal trial for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, and a civil trial for wrongful death; Simpson was also convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping in a separate case.
• O.J. Simpson was charged with the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, who were stabbed to death outside her home in Los Angeles on June 12, 1994.
• The O.J. Simpson case took place from January 24 to October 3, 1995, and millions watched it on television.
• On October 3, 1995, Simpson was acquitted of the murders, however, he was later on found liable for the murders and ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to the families of Brown and Goldman.