It was originally authored by English legal scholar, Patrick Atiyah in 1970 and has been taken over by Professor Peter Cane since the 4th edition in 1987.
After handing over the book, Atiyah changed his mind, and wrote The Damages Lottery (1997) where instead of a state run system, he advocated abolition of tort and that people should buy personal safety insurance.
Professor Cane, however has kept Atiyah's Accidents in line with the title's original thesis.
This is the principle that finds the party that is to blame before compensating the victim in personal injury cases.
Atiyah proposed six major criticisms of the system, which suggest that liability in personal injury claims should not focus on the relationship between the claimant and defendant, but between the parties and society.