Is 'Nervous Shock' Still a Feminist Issue? The Duty of Care and Psychiatric Injury in Australia

Tort Law Review, Vol. 18, pp. 9-32, 2010

UNSW Law Research Paper No. 2010-45

31 Pages Posted: 1 Nov 2010

See all articles by Prue E. Vines

Prue E. Vines

University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Mehera San Roque

University of New South Wales (UNSW) - UNSW Law & Justice

Emily Rumble

University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Date Written: October 30, 2010

Abstract

The traditional approach to duty in nervous shock cases required more hurdles to be met than in cases of ordinary physical injury. The feminist critique of these cases demonstrated that these hurdles were created by gendered stereotypes and patriarchal reasoning. The High Court’s changed requirements in Tame v NSW; Annetts v Australian Stations Pty Ltd (2002) 211 CLR 317 raise the question whether the feminist critique has been rendered obsolete. The article considers some of the previous feminist literature and a quantitative analysis of nervous shock cases in order to examine this question. While women continue to be the majority of claimants in this area, the article emphasises that this is less significant than the fact that the way psychiatric harm is regarded is affected by a gendered way of thinking which permeates our society. Noting that the changes to the requirements in Tame; Annetts and other recent cases still do not put psychiatric harm on exactly the same footing as other personal injury cases, and that the legislative changes created by the various Civil Liability Acts emphasise this and in many cases revert to the previous approach, the authors conclude that the feminist critique still has much to offer this area of law.

Keywords: Torts, Australia

Suggested Citation

Vines, Prue E. and San Roque, Mehera and Rumble, Emily, Is 'Nervous Shock' Still a Feminist Issue? The Duty of Care and Psychiatric Injury in Australia (October 30, 2010). Tort Law Review, Vol. 18, pp. 9-32, 2010, UNSW Law Research Paper No. 2010-45, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1700896

Prue E. Vines (Contact Author)

University of New South Wales (UNSW) ( email )

Kensington
High St
Sydney, NSW 2052
Australia

Mehera San Roque

University of New South Wales (UNSW) - UNSW Law & Justice ( email )

Kensington, New South Wales 2052
Australia

Emily Rumble

University of New South Wales (UNSW) ( email )

Kensington
High St
Sydney, NSW 2052
Australia

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
568
Abstract Views
2,324
Rank
97,249
PlumX Metrics