An Analysis of the Economic Torts

Second Edition

Hazel Carty

The only monograph to cover all the economic torts
The first edition was cited and commended by the House of Lords in the OBG v Allan case, one the two recent key decisions on the general economic torts
Provides a single framework in which to analyse the ways in which the common law balances the need to redress economic harm and the need for effective competition, illustrating the best way forward
Updated to include the two key House of Lords cases in economic tort law - OBG v Allan and Total Network v Revenue
Includes a chapter debating the future of misrepresentation economic torts

An Analysis of the Economic Torts

Second Edition

Hazel Carty

Description

The economic torts for too long have been under-theorized and under-explored by academics and the judiciary alike. In recent years claimants have exploited the resulting chaos by attempting to use the economic torts in ever more exotic ways. This second edition of An Analysis of Econmic Torts, as before, attempts to provide practical legal research to both explore the ingredients of all these torts - both the general economic torts (inducing breach of contract, the unlawful means tort, intimidation, the conspiracy torts) and the misrepresentation economic torts (deceit, malicious falsehood and passing off) - and their rationales. And, as before, an optimum framework for these torts is suggested.
However that framework has to take on board the apparent tension within the House of Lords as revealed in the recent decisions in OBG v Allan and Total Network v Revenue. Over 100 years ago the House of Lords in the seminal decision of Allen v Flood in theory set the agenda for the modern development of the economic torts. The majority in that case adopted an abstentionist approach to liability for intentionally inflicted economic harm, so that even where intentional and unjustified economic harm was inflicted, liability would not necessarily follow. However, this clear framework for the torts was obscured by subsequent case law, leaving the economic torts in a hopeless muddle by the start of the twenty-first century. A chance to finally sort out this mess was presented to the House of Lords in 2007 in the shape of three conjoined appeals, reported under the name OBG v Allan. The thrust of the judgments was that a framework for the economic torts was to be established and dicta and decisions that caused problems and incoherence were to be named and shamed. Re-affirming the abstentionist philosophy of Allen v Flood Lord Hoffmann and Nicholls and Baroness Hale in part relied upon the first edition of An Analysis of the Economic Torts, Lord Hoffmann noting "... if what I have said does anything to clarify what has been described as an extremely obscure branch of the law, much is owing to Hazel Carty's book An Analysis of the Economic Torts ". However, within 10 months of the OBG decision, a differently constituted HL in Total Network SL v Revenue & Customs Commissioners undermined this nascent coherence and did so by focusing on the conspiracy torts (previously dismissed by some commentators as anomalous or superfluous). Distinguishing OBG (which did not as such analyse the conspiracy torts) the House of Lords in Total Network may have shifted the general economic torts from the abstentionist to the interventionist track of development.

Thus it is suggested that conflicting agendas for general economic liability can be discerned in the OBG and Total Network judgments. These agendas are debated (against the background of the growing academic debate) and a coherent approach suggested. As for the misrepresentation torts their potential for development is also discussed and the peril of allowing them to transform into unfair trading or misappropriation torts is explained. As a result, the second edition involves a substantial re-write of the first edition. However, the thesis of the author remains that a coherent framework for these torts can best be constructed based on a narrow remit for the common law.

An Analysis of the Economic Torts

Second Edition

Hazel Carty

1. Introduction
2. Preliminary Discussion of the General Economic Torts
3. Inducing Breach of Contract
4. The Unlawful Means Tort
5. Intimidation
6. Conspiracy
7. Two-Party or Direct Economic Tort Liability
8. The General Economic Torts: Conclusion
9. Deceit
10. Malicious Falsehood
11. Passing Off
12. The Misrepresentation Economic Torts: Conclusion
13. Overall Conclusion and Framework

An Analysis of the Economic Torts

Second Edition

Hazel Carty

Author Information

Hazel Carty has been a Reader in Law at Manchester University Law School since 1978 and is a graduate of Oxford University. Her research interests are in the area of intellectual property law and the common law.