Harold Luntz (1937-2025)

The legal academy suffered a significant loss last week.  Harold Luntz, who was emeritus at Melbourne Law School, passed away at the age of 87.  Luntz was a champion of alternatives to tort law.  From the Melbourne website:

Harold Luntz is an Emeritus Professor in the Law School. Until his retirement at the end of 2002, he held the George Paton Chair of Law. Thereafter, he continued until 2008 to teach in the postgraduate program. From 1986 to 1988 he was Dean of the Faculty of Law. He was educated in South Africa and at Oxford University, before migrating to Australia in 1965.

Harold is:

• • the author of Assessment of Damages for Personal Injury and Death (4th edition, 2002);
  • and Assessment of Damages for Personal Injury and Death: General Principles (2006);
  • principal author of Torts: Cases and Commentary (7th edition, 2013); and
  • the author of numerous articles, notes and comments on the law of torts.

He was the General Editor of the Torts Law Journal (1993 – 2011).

In 2000 he was the inaugural recipient of the John G Fleming Memorial Award for Torts Scholarship and in 2003 was awarded the AILA Insurance Law Prize.

From 1967 to 1984, Harold was the secretary of the Victorian Chief Justice’s Law Reform Committee. From time to time, he acted as consultant to other law reform agencies and government bodies. He also served from 1990 to 1992 as a part-time senior member of the Workcare Appeals Board in Victoria and from 1993 to 1998 as Deputy Chair of the Seafarers Rehabilitation and Compensation Authority.