Nuisance

Abstract

This chapter traces the history of the law of nuisance. The medieval assize of nuisance and the action quod permittat were not comprehensive, because minor complaints of nuisance were supposed to go to local courts. The central courts acquired a wider and more effective jurisdiction through the use of actions on the case. It became necessary to distinguish between the protection of easements and profits, which were property rights, and the protection of natural rights such as freedom from noise and smell, which depended on balancing interests and reasonable compromises. Case also lay for isolated escapes of harmful matter, though the older cases were misunderstood by the Lords in Rylands v. Fletcher (1868) to rest on strict liability. Another misunderstanding concerned public nuisance, which was not a cause of action but a bar to actions by plaintiffs who could not show special loss.