PUBLIC NUISANCE IN A PRIVATE LAW OF TORT

Public Nuisance in a Private Law of Tort

Public Nuisance in a Private Law of Tort

Introduction

In general, it means conduct that adversely affects the legal right of others and is thus, "wrong". For a healthy society it is necessary that it be free of anti-social elements and that an individual should have freedom to exercise his rights without being restricted by others.

Further, if there is a transgression of any right, there must be a way to compensate or to restore the right. This is essentially what the maxim, "Ubi just ibi remedium" implies. Where ever there is a right, there is a remedy. Indeed, a right has no value if there is no way to enforce it. Such rights of individuals primarily originate from two sources - contractual obligations and inherent rights that are available to all the citizens against every other citizen, also known as rights in rem. While the violation of contractual right has clear remedy that arises from the contract itself, the violation of rights that are available to all the persons in general does not have a clear remedy because there is no explicit contract between the two parties. Such violations are called wrongs and it is for such wrongs that the law of torts has been developed.

Historically, crime and tort originated from the same root. Later on, they separated on the account that a crime does not only affect the victim but also to the society as a whole to a great extent. Thus, the branch of law that deals with criminal conduct evolved a lot faster than the branch of law that deals with torts.

Nuisance

Public Nuisance deal with circumstances where a lot of individuals are influenced by the interventions. These interventions are not restricted to private life only. Public Nuisance is an offence to be accused by the law force or other community authority, it would be improper for great statistics of persons to have to litigate from the public magistrates. the definition of "nuisance" includes more and more the notion of danger to health or the environment in addition to the discomfort attributed to the person.

Each public nuisance is an offence to be faced by a trial but if a person is able to demonstrate that he/she has gone through unusual injury and beyond that gone through the rest of the category of individuals, they can bring a claim for those indemnities.

Nuisance is a common law tort. It means that which causes offence, annoyance, trouble or injury. A nuisance can be either public or private. A public nuisance was defined by English scholar Sir J. F. Stephen as,

"An act not warranted by law, or an omission to discharge a legal duty, which act or omission obstructs or causes inconvenience or damage to the public in the exercise of rights common to all His Majesty's subjects".

Private nuisance is the interference with the right of specific people. Nuisance is one of the oldest causes of action known ...