LAWS5024 Chap.7 Negligence Duty of Care
Negligence Duty of Care
Duty of care asks whether the law recognises an obligation between this defendant and claimant concerning a defined risk. Established categories provide a starting point, while novel claims require salient-feature analysis and attention to legal coherence. The chapter covers manufacturers, occupiers, rescuers, third-party wrongdoing, control, vulnerability, reliance, indeterminacy and conflicts with statutory functions.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Established duty categories
- 02
Novel duties and salient features
- 03
Control and vulnerability
- 04
Reliance and assumption of responsibility
- 05
Third-party wrongdoing
- 06
Conflicting statutory responsibilities
- 07
Rescuers and occupier relationships
Worked example · free
Venue control and threatened violence
- +2Define the proposed duty narrowly around reasonable response to a known risk at controlled premises.
- +1Use specific threats to establish foreseeability without treating it as sufficient by itself.
- +3Apply control, knowledge, vulnerability, reliance and the bounded class of event guests.
- +2Address caution about liability for third-party wrongdoing and conclude before breach.
Key terms
- Duty of care
- A recognised obligation to take reasonable care against a defined risk to a claimant.
- Established category
- A relationship in which authority already recognises a duty of care of an identified kind.
- Novel duty
- A proposed duty outside settled categories that requires broader coherence and salient-feature analysis.
- Salient features
- Relationship characteristics such as control, vulnerability, reliance, knowledge and indeterminacy relevant to duty.
- Legal coherence
- Consistency of a proposed duty with other legal rules, obligations and statutory functions.
Negligence Duty of Care FAQ
Is reasonable foreseeability enough to establish duty?
No. Foreseeability is important, but novel-duty analysis also considers the relationship's salient features and whether the proposed obligation coheres with other legal rules and statutory functions. Established categories may simplify the route, but the duty still needs careful definition.
Why is third-party wrongdoing difficult?
The immediate harmful choice belongs to another person, and defendants do not ordinarily guarantee control of strangers. A duty becomes more plausible where the defendant controls the risk setting, knows of a specific danger and the claimant is especially vulnerable or reliant.
How narrowly should a duty be stated?
Define the defendant, claimant, risk and kind of conduct required without deciding breach in advance. A duty framed as preventing all harm is too broad, while one tied to a known premises risk or professional undertaking gives the later breach analysis usable content.
What does control add to duty analysis?
Control identifies who could manage the risk source, premises or third party at the relevant time. It can support a duty where the claimant lacked equivalent power, but it must be described precisely and weighed with knowledge, vulnerability and coherence.
How does vulnerability differ from foreseeability?
Foreseeability concerns whether harm could reasonably be anticipated. Vulnerability asks whether the claimant could protect against it through contract, information, insurance or another practical means. The concepts can point together but perform different legal work.
Why can statutory functions resist a duty?
A proposed private-law obligation may conflict with the choices, priorities or responsibilities Parliament assigned to a public authority. Explain the specific inconsistency rather than assuming government defendants never owe duties. Coherence depends on the statutory scheme and proposed obligation.
When is analogy to an established category useful?
Analogy helps where the relationship shares legally meaningful features such as control, reliance or responsibility with recognised cases. State both the similarity and the difference. A shared physical setting alone does not prove the proposed duty belongs inside the category.
How should a duty involving third-party wrongdoing be framed?
Avoid proposing a duty to prevent all criminal conduct. Identify the particular risk, the defendant's control over the place or source of danger, knowledge of specific threats, the claimant's vulnerability and any reliance or assumed responsibility. Then test coherence with the governing legal framework and explain the burden of the proposed obligation.
A precise formulation lets the court evaluate whether this relationship justifies protection without silently imposing open-ended responsibility for every independent act.
Exam move
Sort duty problems into established and novel routes before writing. For an established category, state authority and define the duty's scope. For a novel claim, make a two-sided table of control, vulnerability, reliance, knowledge, assumption of responsibility, indeterminacy and coherence. Avoid turning each feature into a checklist vote; explain how they interact.
Practise third-party wrongdoing scenarios because they expose the difference between control of a setting and control of the wrongdoer. Stop after the duty conclusion, then begin breach under a new heading with a precise omitted precaution.
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