I Can't Stand my Neighbor's Dog Barking - The law of Nuisance

About

In a more decent world, we wouldn’t need so many laws. Were society to conduct itself with a bit more polite refinement, its members wouldn’t need to resolve the plethora of disputes unremittingly submitted before the courts. In a pristine Rousseauian state of nature conflicts would rarely arise, much less require the intervention of mediating magistrates and arbiters. More likely however, in the absence of a well-functioning judicial system our lot would be unbearably brutal. Statutes and judges are necessary correctives to the human condition. Accordingly, when people cross the line between the simply inconsiderate and the blatantly offensive, a civilized society directs us to resolve such conflicts via established legal means—whereas the alternative leads to anarchy. At the crux of this dilemma is the concept of “nuisance,” a somewhat nebulous term referring to the annoying, unpleasant or obnoxious. One man’s genteel backyard barbeque is another man’s ruckus street party. Society has yet to devise the enigmatic formula to accommodate each individual’s sensitivity threshold for loud noises, objectionable odors or similar hazards. A legally recognized nuisance, whether committed against the public or a particular individual, is an actionable tort, that is: a civil offense for which one may sue or be sued. Historically, a nuisance was construed as “sensible personal discomfort” causing a material interference of the right to quiet enjoyment of a person’s property. Israel’s Torts Ordinance [New Version] defines Public Nuisance as an unlawful act or omission which “endangers the life, safety, health, property or comfort of the public or obstructs the public in the exercise of a common right.” The main obstacle with initiating such a legal procedure is that only an officially authorized representative of the State, or person who has suffered monetary damage, can sue as a result of this tort. Individual Nuisances, on the other hand, can be adjudicated independently for