What is the modern law of nuisance and how does it differ from negligence ?
A. Nuisance is a substantial and unreasonable interference with another’s use and enjoyment of land. This is a question of degree and takes into account considerations such as the nature of the interference, its intensity and duration or frequency, and its cause. While the person creating a nuisance will be strictly liable for it, in the sense that the taking of reasonable care is no defence, the liability of a person, usually an occupier, for a nuisance he did not create depends on proving assent to or knowledge of, the nuisance. Whereas negligence is established by the unreasonableness of the defendant’s conduct before the event, nuisance is established by the unreasonableness of the interference, from the plaintiffs point of view, after the event.
