Legal History Revisited: Development of Contract and Tort Laws until early 20th Century

Abstract

Often, academics and scholars of legal history argue that the tort law long ago lost its mooring. Many believe that the development of the tort law is often misunderstood. While a group propels that the tort law developed from the brute recognition of strict liability for imposing more and more refined and moral standards of negligence, but many consider it as partially correct. Therefore, over the time, tort law encountered a number of theoretical and fundamental issues and challenges. Secondly, the contract law is entirely domestic origin. Evidently, the history of contract law is comprised of three forms of action namely debt, covenant and assumpsit. This article intends to explore the factors mainly involved in the development of the contract and tort law principles in the early twentieth century.

Keywords: legal history of contract and tort, development of contract and tort law, history of contract law, history of tort law