Conclusion: The Canadian Law of Torts in the Twenty-First Century

• Author: Philip H. Osborne
• Profession: Faculty of Law. The University of Manitoba
• Pages: 466-480

466

CONCLUSION

THE CANADIAN LAW

OF TORTS IN THE

TWENTY-FIRST

CENTURY

At the beginning of the twentieth century, no judge or lawyer could

have foreseen the substantial expansion and evolution of the Canadi an

law of torts that would take place in the following hundred years. We

are not in any better position today to predict what the rem ainder of this

century will bring. Nevertheless, there are certain trends and themes

in Canadian tort law that are likely to be inf‌luential in its development

and evolution. These themes include the centrality and dominance of

the tort of negligence, the dynamism and expansionary nature of the

tort of negligence, the incremental drift towards a greater generaliza-

tion and integration of tort rules, the reform and modernization of tort

law, the dominance of the compensatory function of tort law, and the

rise of alternat ive and supplementar y legal and non-legal compensator y

and deterrent mechanisms that threaten to marginalize and diminish

the importance of tort law. Not all of these themes a re discrete phenom-

ena and not all of them point in the same direction, but they each war-

rant some attention in anticipating the futu re path of Canadian tort law.

A. THE CENTR ALITY OF THE TORT OF

NEGLIGENCE

In the twentieth centur y the tort of negligence blossomed into the dom-

inant f‌ield of tort liability. Virtually all activities that carry a risk of

personal injury or propert y damage are now subject to the general duty