A civil wrong or wrong is a cause of action under civil law. Types include tort, breach of contract and breach of trust.[1]
Something that amounts to a civil wrong is wrongful. A wrong involves the violation of a right because wrong and right are contrasting terms.[2] An 1860 legal ruling stated that: "It is essential to an action in tort that the act complained of should under the circumstances be legally wrongful as regards the party complaining; that is, it must prejudicially affect him in some legal right".[3]
The law that relates to civil wrongs is part of the branch of the law that is called the civil law.[4] A civil wrong can be followed by civil proceedings.[5] It is a misnomer to describe a civil wrong as a "civil offence".[6] The law of England recognised the concept of a wrong before it recognised the distinction between civil wrongs and crimes in the 13th century.[7]
- ^ Williams (1982), pp. 9–10.
- ^ Clerk (1989), para. 1–14 at p. 12.
- ^ Rogers v Rajendro Dutt (1860) 13 Moo P C 209, 9 WR 149, 15 ER 78, quoted in House of Lords, Watkins (Respondent) v. Home Office (Appellants) and others, [2006] UKHL 17.
- ^ Williams (1982), p. 2.
- ^ Williams (1982), p. 3.
- ^ Williams (1982), p. 4.
- ^ Phillips (1960), pp. 207, 208, 213.