Which term defines the obligation to protect another against unreasonable risk of injury in negligence?

The term that defines the obligation to protect another against unreasonable risk of injury in negligence is "duty." In the context of tort law, particularly negligence, duty refers to the legal obligation that one party (the defendant) has to act with a certain standard of care toward another party (the plaintiff). This standard of care is meant to prevent foreseeable harm to others.

In order to establish negligence, a plaintiff must first demonstrate that the defendant owed a duty to them. This includes an assessment of whether a reasonable person in the defendant's position would have acted in a similar manner to avoid exposing others to unreasonable risk of injury. Once a duty is established, the plaintiff can then proceed to prove that the duty was breached, that the breach caused harm, and that damages resulted from that harm.

While the other terms—breach, causation, and damages—are also essential components of a negligence claim, they do not define the obligation itself. Breach pertains to the violation of that duty, causation links the breach to the harm suffered, and damages refer to the actual loss incurred by the plaintiff due to the defendant's actions. Therefore, the central concept of duty is foundational in establishing a negligence claim as it sets the stage for determining whether the