Private Nuisance in the Wake of Hunt Leather

Speakers: Associate Professor Iain Field (UQ) and Professor Joachim Dietrich (Bond)

Join us in person or via Zoom: https://uqz.zoom.us/j/87316917817

This is a roundtable discussion of some of the implications and more controversial aspects of the reasoning in the recent High Court decision in Hunt Leather Pty Ltd v Transport for NSW [2025] HCA 53. The High Court there allowed a claim for damages in private nuisance brought by two businesses suffering economic disruption as a result of extended public construction works on the Sydney Light Rail system, which had been commissioned by Transport NSW.  In the course of the decision, the Court revisited and reconsidered the ‘test’ to be applied in determining whether or not the tort of private nuisance has been committed, there being a significant divergence in approach between the majority (led by Edelman and Gordon JJ) on the one hand and the judgments of Gageler CJ and Jagot J on the other.

Critical discussion of the decision and its implications will be led by the speakers, but the forum is designed to encourage open interactions in a genuine round-table debate. Participants will get the most out of the session if they have read the judgments in advance and come with questions in mind.

About the Speakers

Iain Field is a private law scholar in the TC Beirne School of Law . His primary research and teaching interests lie in the area of tort law, with an emphasis on defences and damages. His work has been accepted for publication in leading law journals, including the Cambridge Law Journal, Modern Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Melbourne University Law Review, University of New South Wales Law Journal and Sydney Law Review.  

Joachim Dietrich is a Professor of law at Bond University, having previous worked at ANU and James Cook University.  He is the current  editor of the Torts Law Journal and has published widely across private law in the field of torts, equity, trusts, restitution and remedies.  

Read Associate Professor Ian Field's biography and pubications

Read Professor Joachim Dietrich's biography and publications