Agent TypePersonIdentifierUMA-AG-000001401Activities & OccupationsAcademics - LawGenderMaleHistoryHarold Luntz was a major figure in Australian Law of Torts which covers the area of compensation for damages and personal injury. The Hon Justice Michael Kirby has acknowledged him as the foremost expert and a teacher in this area in Australia and internationally.
Harold Luntz was born in South Africa in 1937, studied at Athlone Boys’ High School in Johannesburg. He took degrees in arts and law at the University of the Witwatersrand and later lectured there. In August 1965, Harold Luntz accepted the post of Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Melbourne after taking his BCL at Oxford in 1962.In 1970 Harold Luntz was the Visiting Associate Professor Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, and in 1971 he was Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned to the University of Melbourne as Reader in Law in July 1971, becoming a professor in July 1976. He served as a Dean from 1986-1988, returning afterwards to his preference for writing and teaching.
Harold Luntz’s text on the law of damages - Assessment of Damages for Personal Injury and Death (1st edition, 1974; 4th edition, 2002) - inspired the University of Melbourne to award him the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1983 for the second edition. In 1980 with David Hambly and Robert Hayes he launched the first edition of Torts: Cases and Commentary; and launched and edited the Torts Law Journal until his retirement in 2002.
Source: The Hon Justice Michael Kirby, Harold Luntz: Doyen of the Australian Law of Torts, Melbourne University Law Review, v.27, no.3, 2003 Dec, p.635(14)
Luntz, Harold (1937-2025), [UMA-AG-000001401]. University of Melbourne Archives, accessed 14/02/2026, https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/57838
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