Negligence is the failure to exercise the degree of care that the law requires a reasonable person to exercise in given circumstances. It has three parameters: (1) a duty of care owed by the defendant to the plaintiff, (2) breach of that duty through act or omission falling below the reasonable standard, and (3) resulting damage causally linked to the breach. The persistence mechanism is judicial precedent — each ruling refines the reasonable-person standard and extends or limits the scope of duty. [formal: negligentia | substrate: behavior | horizon: a life | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.94]
Accepted ontology entry
negligence
Negligence is the failure to exercise the degree of care that the law requires a reasonable person to exercise in given circumstances. It has three parameters: (1) a duty of care owed by the defendant to the plaintiff, (2) breach of that d…
Definition
Why it is in scope
Negligence is a human-made legal construct: the failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances. Built through centuries of common law to assign liability for harm caused by carelessness, it persists as a category in tort law across jurisdictions worldwide.
Names and aliases
- negligenceen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmr784r5e002bs126m1vdhxgkDEPENDS_ON →
Negligence requires law to operate now — it is a legal concept defined by the breach of a legally recognized duty. Remove law and negligence ceases to exist as a construct. Present-tense necessity: without law, there is no duty, no breach, no negligence.
- cmrcnwuuu011m13vz3w4vv356DEPENDS_ON →
Negligence (as a legal concept — breach of duty of care) needs duty to operate now. Removal test: remove duty and negligence ceases to function as a legal concept, since negligence IS defined as breach of duty. The which-came-first test confirms direction: duty (0.04) predates negligence (0.81). Law 8, 8b.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 19, 2026, 1:00 AM UTC
- Content hash
- 88710e5e3ce6cd7cd9d7b71aa347f23a7286878eea539a701571ff398c35cbc9