The word Tort is derived from French word of the same spelling which means "mischief, injury, or calamity", from Latin tortus meaning twisted.
Tort law is a body of law that addresses, and provides remedies for, civil wrongs not arising out of contractual obligations. A person who suffers legal damages may be able to use tort law to receive compensation from someone who is legally responsible, or liable, for those injuries. Generally speaking, tort law defines what constitutes a legal injury and establishes the circumstances under which one person may be held liable for another's injury. Tort law spans intentional and negligent acts.
For instance, someone throws a ball and accidentally hits another person in the eye. The injured person may sue for losses occasioned by the accident (e.g., costs of medical treatment, lost income during time off work). Whether or not the injured party wins the suit depends on if she can prove the other engaged in tortious conduct. Here, the injured person would attempt to prove that the other had a duty and failed to exercise the standard of care which a reasonable person would render in throwing the ball. Another example is when a company exposes workers to asbestos which then causes mesothelioma cancer.
One of the main topics of the substance of tort law is determining the standard of care - a legal phrase that means distinguishing between when conduct is or is not tortious. Put another way, the big issue is whether a person suffers the loss from his own injury, or whether it gets transferred to someone else.
Returning to the example above, if the ball was thrown purposely, the injured party could sue for the intentional tort of battery (and the action might also, separately, be a pursued as a criminal matter). If it was an accident, the injured party must prove negligence. To do this, they must show that the injury was reasonably foreseeable, that one owed the other a duty of care not to hit them with the ball, and that she failed to meet the standard of care required.
In much of the western world, the touchstone of tort liability is negligence. If the injured party cannot prove that the person believed to have caused the injury acted with negligence, at the very least, tort law will not compensate them. Tort law also recognizes intentional torts and strict liability, which apply to defendants who engage in certain actions.
In tort law, injury is defined broadly. Injury does not just mean a physical injury, such as where a person is struck by a ball. Injuries in tort law reflect any invasion of any number of individual interests. This includes interests recognized in other areas of law, such as property rights. Actions for nuisance and trespass to land can arise from interfering with rights in real property. Conversion and trespass to chattels can protect interference with movable property. Interests in prospective economic advantages from contracts can also be injured and become the subject of tort actions. A number of situations caused by parties in a contractual relationship may nevertheless be tort rather than contract claims, such as breach of fiduciary duty.
Tort law may also be used to compensate for injuries to a number of other individual interests that are not recognized in property or contract law, and are intangible. This includes an interest in freedom from emotional distress, privacy interests, and reputation. These are protected by a number of torts such as infliction, privacy torts, and defamation. Defamation and privacy torts may, for example, allow a celebrity to sue a newspaper for publishing an untrue and harmful statement about him. Other protected interests include freedom of movement, protected by the intentional tort of false imprisonment.
The equivalent of tort in civil law jurisdictions is delict. The law of torts can be categorised as part of the law of obligations, but unlike voluntarily assumed obligations (such as those of contract, or trust), the duties imposed by the law of torts apply to all those subject to the relevant jurisdiction. To behave in 'tortious' manner is to harm another's body, property, or other rights. One who commits a tortious act is called a tortfeasor. Torts is one of the American Bar Association mandatory first year law school courses.