ABSTRACT
It follows from the issues discussed above that if there is to be a general principle of tortious liability, it is likely to be in respect of intentional, reckless or negligent actions which cause harm. This is not the case in England. The reason for the absence of such a principle in England is historical. A person starting a court action uses a document called a writ. In the Middle Ages, this document had to follow one of a number of set forms of wording. These forms of wording were known as the forms of action. They were abolished in the middle of the last century, but they left their imprint on the English law of tort. They ensured that English tortious liability existed only in a number of separate categories. In the famous words of Maitland,3 ‘the forms of actions we have buried, but they still rule us from their graves’.
