Public Nuisance is a Tort

Abstract

Abstract In a well-known article, Thomas Merrill posed the question “Is Public Nuisance a Tort?”, ultimately answering the question in the negative: “public nuisance is not, and never was, a tort.” This article reaches a different answer to Merrill’s question. It argues that Merrill was wrong to conclude that the characterisation of public nuisance as tort was a recent invention and that public nuisance claims are not privately actionable by individual plaintiffs. The article presents a defence of the private action for public nuisance and concludes, on both an historical and a theoretical account, that public nuisance has long been understood as a tort at common law, and for good reason.