Morgan, Phillip David James;
(2021)
Tort law and the Voluntary Sector – protecting volunteers from liability in negligence.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Text (Thesis)
20200202 Morgan PhD Library Copy.pdf - Accepted Version Download (2MB) | Preview |
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Text (Appendix 2)
20201128 Appendix 2 State by State Immunity Table, Phillip Morgan UCL Thesis (1).pdf - Accepted Version Download (356kB) | Preview |
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Text (Appendix 3)
20201128 Appendix 3 Survey of US VPA Case Law Phillip Morgan UCL Thesis (1).pdf - Accepted Version Download (550kB) | Preview |
Abstract
The activities of volunteers and the voluntary sector are highly beneficial to society. However, they are deterred by their fears of negligence liability, and this is impacting on volunteering levels. Relieving both voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) and volunteers from liability is not the correct solution since it forces victims to bear the cost of negligently inflicted harm, and will encourage poor practices within the sector. Relieving VSOs and not volunteers from liability is not the correct solution either since it places the cost of paying for negligence on to volunteers or victims, people who are less able to loss-spread, and less able to change their behaviour to reduce accidents. It may also result in volunteers withdrawing their services. Relieving volunteers from liability, and not VSOs is the right answer because organisations are more able to loss-spread, and more able to change their behaviour to reduce accidents. It will also promote and encourage volunteering. This thesis makes the case for the introduction of statutory volunteer protection from negligence. Such volunteer protection has the potential to generate considerable benefits to society. The protection will provide a partial defence to volunteers, protecting them from ordinary negligence outside of the motoring context, but not gross negligence. In turn, the volunteer’s liability will be statutorily transferred to the VSO for which they volunteer. The volunteer’s defence will be waived where the volunteer is insured for the loss, but their VSO will also remain liable for their negligence. This protection is only available to organisational volunteers.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Tort law and the Voluntary Sector – protecting volunteers from liability in negligence |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2021. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Laws |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10120994 |
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