"The concept of the employer's vicarious liability for the torts of employees discloses a juridical theory of the risk-shifting function of the enterprise. The scope of the concept has recently been re-examined in a series of decisions in the highest appellate courts of Canada, the UK and Australia. In support of the ‘enterprise-risk' analysis adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada in Bazley v Curry, it is argued that this functional test, linking substance to form, is preferable to the vague verbal formulae employed in the House of Lords in Lister v Hesley Hall and the High Court of Australia in State of New South Wales v Lepore. Linked to ‘enterprise-risk', a move towards ‘organisational liability' within tort law, drawing on elements of vicarious liability and non-delegable duties of care, would represent one possible legal response to the current ‘fragmentation' of the enterprise."

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