Discuss the fairness of the award of damages in negligence when the defences of volenti and contributory negligence are raised.

Firstly when looking into the fairness of these two subjects we need to have a greater understanding, then they can be applied to the various areas of law however we are only interested in them when awarding damages. Volenti, or volenti non fit injuria which means ‘to one who volunteers, no harm is done. When volenti is applied it means the defendant is clear of all liability. Within volenti there are three requirements of the defence that are needed to be displayed which are voluntary, agreement and knowledge. Voluntary refers to the fact that the agreement must be voluntary for this defence to succeed. Agreement refers to the fact the agreement through the defendant’s action or statement must have been consented to. Finally knowledge is referring to the fact that the defendant must have had full knowledge to the extent of the risk. Next there is contributory negligence, this is where the claimant has contributed to the injuries they have suffered due to them being negligent. This is due to the fact they have ignored the obvious risks displayed. Like volenti there are certain requirements for the defence of contributory negligence however there are only two, the claimant didn’t take care in the situation regarding their own safety and this failure contributed to the injuries they suffered.
Discussing the fairness of each of these means we need to look at the various cases where these defences have been used. Firstly looking at volenti and the case of ICI Ltd v Shatwell. This is a case example for the requirement of voluntary. The claimant and his brother were both working as quarry