ABSTRACT
In legal practice today, negligence has pride of place in tort. The majority of tort claims are for negligence and, even if other torts such as breach of statutory duty or nuisance are involved in a particular case, negligence is frequently claimed as well. This has not always been the case. Negligence is a relatively recent tort to emerge in its own right in the long history of tort. This chapter will introduce the tort of negligence by tracing the rise of fault as a basis of liability and commenting on the case of Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562. The chapter concludes with an account of the criteria which need to be satisfied in order to establish a successful claim in negligence.
