Tort law is still based mainly on which legal principle?

Tort law is still based mainly on which legal principle?

• A. Common Law
• B. Statutes
• C. Administrative Rules
• D. Equity

Answer: (A)

Tort law is built primarily on common law—the body of rules that emerge from court decisions and the use of precedent to shape duties and liability. The standards you see in negligence, such as the duty to act with reasonable care and the idea that harm must be a foreseeable consequence of a breach, come from judge-made rules developed over time. Statutes and administrative rules do play important, specific roles in modern practice—creating or modifying liability in particular contexts and governing processes—but they generally supplement rather than replace the fundamental common-law framework. Equity, historically a separate track focused on fairness and remedies like injunctions, influences remedies, but the core principles of tort liability come from common law rather than statutes or administrative rules.

Tort law is built primarily on common law—the body of rules that emerge from court decisions and the use of precedent to shape duties and liability. The standards you see in negligence, such as the duty to act with reasonable care and the idea that harm must be a foreseeable consequence of a breach, come from judge-made rules developed over time. Statutes and administrative rules do play important, specific roles in modern practice—creating or modifying liability in particular contexts and governing processes—but they generally supplement rather than replace the fundamental common-law framework. Equity, historically a separate track focused on fairness and remedies like injunctions, influences remedies, but the core principles of tort liability come from common law rather than statutes or administrative rules.