Professor Emeritus Lewis Klar, Q.C., recently published his article "Is Lord Atkin's Neighbour Principle Still Relevant to Canadian Tort Law?" in 2013 3 Juridical Review, published by the University of the West of Scotland. The paper was initially presented on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Donoghue v Stevenson at an international conference hosted by the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley, Scotland, the site of this famous case.
Professor Lewis Klar's published paper:
INTRODUCTION:
Lord Atkin's "neigbour principle" lay at the heart of twentieth century Canadian negligence law. The idea that there is "a general conception of relations giving rise to a duty of care, of which the particular cases found in the books are but instances"[1] excited Canadian tort law scholars and jurists. No-one expressed his enthusiasm more than Justice Allen M. Linden. On the 50th anniversary of Donoghue v. Stevenson, Justice Linden wrote a glorious tribute to the judgment, stating among other things that Donoghue v Stevenson was "not only alive and well, it is thriving, vigorous, lusty, youthful and energetic". He opined that despite the efforts of some courts "to restrict the scope of the neighbour principle", that this had been "a losing battle". He noted that "the dominant sweep of history in negligence law has been toward expanding the neighbour principle into every nook and cranny of negligence law."[2] Illustrative of the enthusiasm of Canadians for Donoghue v. Stevenson was the first "pilgrimage to Paisley" led by Mr. Justice Martin Taylor, which was followed by a video and book of essays about the case.[3]