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Vicarious liability is a subject that has the merit of easy application to quotidian cases, facilitating compensation for many harmed by torts. It has the drawback that we do not agree exactly why we provide that compensation nor when we should stop.
Paula Giliker's addition to the Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law is helpful in three ways. First, it is timely work of solid scholarship. Second, despite the all-encompassing difficulties in terminology, rationale and application, it manages to be accessible, clear and well-structured. Third, it presents comparative and at times historical dimensions to the many facets of vicarious liability, giving the reader a much clearer view than a work on national law alone.
A resurgence in appellate vicarious liability cases has not yielded much greater clarity on their own but works like this provide much-needed detailed analysis. The current period of change was certainly underway by the time Lister v Hesley Hall re-set the test for determining which wrongs of an employee will make the employer vicariously liable in 2001. Thereafter the 'close connection' between the employee's tort(s) and his or her employment has been a sign that it is fair and just to hold the employer vicariously liable. As Giliker shows, the 'close connection' test may fit better with what lawyers think the law should be doing, but it does not provide any absolute or relative guidance for future decisions. Similarly, while English courts have recently debated the problem of the borrowed employee, Giliker shows that no consistent and logical position has yet been reached.
Vicarious Liability in Tort provides modern and up to date analysis of liability for the acts of others. The best monograph on vicarious liability in English to date has been Patrick Atiyah's 1967 Vicarious Liability in the Law of Torts (Butterworth & Co. Ltd, London), now partially overtaken by 45 years of legal development. Then, other than Thomas Baty's Vicarious Liability (Clarendon Press, Oxford) almost a century ago in 1916, dedicated volumes have been short on the ground and articles have not fully filled the gap. The most recent comparative work has been the Unification of Tort Law: Liability for Damage Caused by...