Nuisance in English law
Public nuisance

Public nuisance concerns protecting the public, unlike private nuisance, which protects an individual. As such it is not only a tort but also a crime. In Attorney-General v PYA Quarries Ltd, it was defined by Romer LJ as any act or omission "which materially affects the reasonable comfort and convenience of life of a class of Her Majesty's subjects". Because of the wide definition given, there are a large range of issues which can be dealt with through public nuisance, including picketing on a road, as in Thomas v NUM, blocking a canal, as in Rose v Miles, or disrupting traffic by queuing in a road, as in Lyons v Gulliver. A significant difference between private and public nuisance is that under public, one can claim for personal injuries as well as damage to property. Another difference is that public nuisance is primarily a crime; it only becomes a tort if the claimant can prove that they suffered "special damage" over and above the effects on the other affected people in the "class". The test for the required size of a "class" was also discussed in the Attorney-General v PYA Quarries Ltd, with the court concluding that the test was whether the nuisance was "so widespread in its range or so indiscriminate in its effect that it would not be reasonable to expect one person to take proceedings on his own responsibility to put a stop to it, but that it should be taken on the responsibility of the community at large".
change_case:english_lowercase, punctuation:no_comma