Masterclass with Stephen Todd - New Zealand Law Review - Torts on Thursday 6th November 2025

The seminar will give an update on recent developments in the field of torts, looking in particular at a number of significant decisions in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Australia. Topics to be covered may include, although are not limited to: disabled life, the common law and cover for accident compensation; mental injury suffered by secondary victims of accidents; liability in negligence in respect of conduct undertaken voluntarily; the ‘measured’ duty of an occupier of land in negligence and nuisance; visual intrusion as constituting a nuisance; vicarious liability and the ambit of the ‘close connection’ test; defective buildings and claims for contribution; joint tortfeasors and accessory liability.

Stephen Todd LLB, LLM (Sheffield), LLD (Cant), FRSNZ, Barrister (Inner Temple), Professor Emeritus, University of Canterbury Stephen Todd retired as Professor of Law at the University of Canterbury in 2024, but continues to research and write in the fields of tort and contract. He is the general editor and principal author of Todd on Torts (9th edition, 2023), and a joint author of The Law of Contract in New Zealand (7th edition, 2022). He also contributes to Charlesworth and Percy on Negligence (16th edition, 2025, forthcoming) and Principles of Medical Law (5th edition, 2025, forthcoming). He is a holder of the John Fleming Memorial Prize for Torts Scholarship, a biennial international prize for torts lawyers. In 2022 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In a different vein, he has written Leading Cases in Song (2014), a light-hearted rewriting of some leading decisions as songs, with music and illustrations. His latest project is writing a book of stories for children with amusing legal themes.