Centre for Private Law
Malice and the Development of Tort Law
Date: March 25, 2026 (Wednesday)
Time: 6:00 – 7:00 PM
NEW VENUE: Room 824, 8/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
At the end of the nineteenth century, English judges engaged in a debate of considerable significance for the development of tort law. The question debated was whether English law ought to recognise a general liability in tort for malicious injury. The view that prevailed was that it ought not to. Malice was thereafter confined to the margins, where it remains an essential element of liability in a limited number of torts. Against this background, the paper explores the discussion of malice in three specific contexts: the nineteenth century debate over tortious liability for malicious injury; the tort of malicious prosecution, expanded in Willers v Joyce (No 1) [2016] UKSC 43; and the tort of lawful means conspiracy. The paper aims to shed light on the complex factors that shape the judicial development of tort law, including history. It seeks to develop these factors into an analytical framework and test the application of that framework at the frontiers of tort liability, the creation and abolition of torts.
About the Speaker
Dr Stelios Tofaris is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge and a Fellow in Law at Girton College, Cambridge. He has taught Tort Law, Contract Law, Advanced Obligations and Comparative Legal History, and has supervised PhD students across these areas. His work has been cited by courts across the common law, including the UK Supreme Court, the Irish Supreme Court, the Indian Supreme Court and the New Zealand Court of Appeal. He has held visiting positions at the University of Melbourne, Université Paris Cité and Georg-August-University Goettingen.
Moderator: Craig Purshouse, Associate Professor, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law