Professor Jonathan Morgan | Faculty of Law

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Email

jem44@cam.ac.uk

College Contact Details

Room: O4, Old Court

Tel: 38067

Corpus Christi College

Professor of English Law

MA (Oxon) PhD (Cantab)

Interests

Contract, Tort, Constitutional Law, Legal Reasoning

Research centres and interest groups

Cambridge Private Law Centre (CPLC)

Centre for Public Law (CPL)

CV / Biography

Fellow, Corpus Christi College. Barrister (Middle Temple).

Jonathan Morgan began his career as a lecturer in English Law at Warsaw University, and he maintains links with legal education in the region, as a trustee of the charity Juris Angliae Scientia Ltd and judge of the Central and Eastern European Mooting Competition.

He has been a Fellow of Corpus (where he had previously been a PhD student) since 2012. He was appointed to a personal chair as Professor of English Law in 2023, delivering his inaugural lecture on "Judges, Jurists and Style".

Selected publications

Books

Torts on Three Continents: Honouring Jane Stapleton (ed) (Oxford University Press, 2024)

Great Debates in Tort Law (Hart Publishing, 2022)

Great Debates in Contract Law (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) 3rd Edition

Contract Law Minimalism: A Formalist Restatement of Commercial Contract Law, 2013)

Hepple and Matthews' Tort: Cases and Materials (ed) (Oxford University Press, 2008) 6th Edition

Hepple and Matthews' Tort Law: Cases and Materials (with David Howarth, Martin Matthews, Janet O'Sullivan, Stelios Tofaris, Bob Hepple) (Hart Publishing, 2015) 7th Edition

Great Debates in Contract Law (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) 2nd Edition

Great Debates in Contract Law (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

Articles

'Certainty, Good Faith and ‘Reasonable Endeavours’: Reflections on MUR Shipping' (2025) 2 Contract & Commercial LR 135-154

'Equality at the contract-tort boundary: levelling up or levelling down?' (2022) 38 Prof Neg 135-161

'IRAL's missing remedy: Compensation for unlawfulness' U.K. Const. L. Blog (12th October 2021)

'In Praise of Flexibility: Clause 1 of the Judicial Review and Courts Bill 2021' U.K. Const. L. Blog (23rd Sept. 2021)

'Covid-19 and False Imprisonment' U.K. Const. L. Blog (3rd Nov. 2020)

'"O Lord make me pure--But not yet": Granting time for the amendment of unlawful legislation' (2019) 135 LQR 585

'Nonfeasance and the end of policy? Reflections on the revolution in public authority liability' (2019) 35 Prof Neg 32-53

'Common mistake in contract: Rare success and common misapprehensions' [2018] CLJ 559-569

'Abolishing personal injuries law? A response to Lord Sumption' (2018) 34 Prof Neg 122-142

'Contracting for self-denial: on enforcing "no oral modification" clauses ' [2017] CLJ 589-615

'Law, Politics and the Independence of the Judiciary in the United Kingdom: Reflections on the “Brexit litigation”' (2016) 25 Commonwealth Lawyer 7-12

'A Brexit general election?' (2016) UK Constitutional Law Blog

'On the intractability of the human rights debate' (2016) Judicial Power Project

'Vicarious liability for independent contractors?' (2015) 31 Prof Neg 235-258

'Smuggling mitigation into White & Carter v McGregor: Time to come clean?' [2015] LMCLQ 575-594

'Liability for Independent Contractors in Contract and Tort: Duties to Ensure that Care is Taken' [2015] CLJ 109–139

'Strict Liability for Police Nonfeasance? The Kinghan Report on the Riot (Damages) Act 1886' (2014) 77 MLR 434-459

'A mare's nest? The Jockey Club and judicial review of sports governing bodies' (2012) 12 Legal Information Management 102

'Policy reasoning in tort law: The courts, the Law Commission and the critics' (2009) 125 LQR 215

'Against judicial review of discretionary contractual powers' [2008] LMCLQ 230

'The rise and fall of the general duty of care' (2006) 22 Prof Neg 206

'Tort, insurance and incoherence' (2004) 67 MLR 384

'Privacy, confidence and horizontal effect' [2003] CLJ 444

'Law's British Empire' (2002) 22 OJLS 729

'Questioning the True Effect of the Human Rights Act' [2002] Legal Studies 259

'Nuisance and the unruly tenant' [2001] CLJ 382

Book Chapters

"Tort as a Tool of Government Policy: Section 38 of the Building Act 1984: Sleeping Beauty Awakes?" in Matthew Bell, Susan Bright, Ben McFarlane and Andrew Robertson (ed(s)), Private Law and Building Safety (Hart Publishing, 2025)

" Judges, Jurists and Style" in Joe Sampson and Stelios Tofaris (ed(s)), Essays in Law and History for David Ibbetson: Querella (Hart Publishing, 2024), pp. 371-390

"Compensation as ‘Conditional Licence’ for Harmful Activities: An Exploration" in K Burns, J Gardner, J Morgan, S Steel (ed(s)), Torts on Three Continents: Honouring Jane Stapleton (Oxford University Press, 2024), pp. 283-310

"The British Politics of Medical Negligence Reform: ‘Protecting Our NHS’ from Claims in Tort" in J Gardner, A Goymour, J O'Sullivan, S Worthington (ed(s)), Politics, Policy and Private Law Volume I: Tort, Property and Equity (Hart Publishing, 2024), pp. 63-86

"Professor Ian Roderick Macneil (1929–2010)" in James Goudkamp and Donal Nolan (ed(s)), Scholars of Contract Law (Hart Publishing, 2022), pp. 295-330

"Compulsion, Choice and Statutory Intervention in Contract: Implied Terms of Quality in Sale of Goods" in TT Arvind and Jenny Steele (ed(s)), Contract Law and the Legislature (Hart Publishing, 2020), pp. 163-192

"Opting for ‘Documentary Fundamentalism’ : Respecting Party Choice for Entire Agreement and Non-Reliance Clauses" in Paul S Davies & Magda Raczynska (ed(s)), Contents of Commercial Contracts: Terms Affecting Freedoms (Hart Publishing, 2020), pp. 239-266

"Contract law as regulation: Relational and formalist approaches" in Andrew Johnston and Lorraine Talbolt (ed(s)), Great Debates in Commercial and Corporate Law (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), pp. 1-20

"Contract Damages as Default Rules" in David Campbell and Roger Halson (ed(s)), Research Handbook on Remedies in Private Law (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019), pp. 476-493

"Bargain" in Warren Swain and David Campbell (ed(s)), Reimagining Contract Law Pedagogy: A New Agenda for Teaching (Routledge, 2019), pp. 22-41

"On the Nature and Function of Remedies for Breach of Contract" in Sarah Worthington and Graham Virgo (ed(s)), Commercial Remedies: Resolving Controversies, 2017), pp. 23-45

"In defence of Baird Textiles: A sceptical view of relational contract law" in David Campbell, Linda Mulcahy and Sally Wheeler (ed(s)), Changing Concepts of Contract: Essays in Honour of Ian Macneil (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), pp. 166-192

"The right of withdrawal" (with Reiner Schulze) in Gerhard Dannemann and Stefan Vogenauer (ed(s)), The Common European Sales Law in Context: Interactions with English and German Law (Oxford University Press, 2013)

"Reflections on reforming punitive damages in English law" in Lotte Meurkens and Emily Nordin (ed(s)), The Power of Punitive Damages: Is Europe Missing Out? (Intersentia, 2012)

"Causation, politics and law: The English--and Scottish--asbestos saga" in Richard Goldberg (ed(s)), Perspectives on Causation (Hart Publishing, 2011)

"Amateur Operatics: The Realization of Parliamentary Protection of Civil Liberties" in Tom Campbell, KD Ewing and Adam Tomkins (ed(s)), The Legal Protection of Human Rights: Sceptical Essays (Oxford University Press, 2011)

"Technological change and the development of liability for fault in England and Wales" in Miquel Martin-Casals (ed(s)), The Development of Liability in Relation to Technological Change, 2010)

"Central Government in English Common Law; Constitutional Law in English Common Law; Parliament" in Stanley N Katz (ed(s)), Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (Oxford University Press, 2009)

"Liability insurance" in Peter Cane and Joanne Conaghan (ed(s)), New Oxford Companion to Law (Oxford University Press, 2008)

"Torts and Technology" in Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford, and Karen Yeung (ed(s)), The Oxford Handbook of Law, Regulation, and Technology (Oxford University Press, 2017)

Book Reviews

Review of "The Collaborative Constitution" by Aileen Kavanagh [2025] CLJ 209-213

Review of "Private Law in Context" by Marc Loth (2024) 140 LQR 160-163

Review of Sceptical Perspectives on the Changing Constitution of the United Kingdom edited by Richard Johnson and Yuan Yi Zhu (2023) 139 LQR 686

Review of: Vicarious Liability: Critique and Reform by Anthony Gray, and of Reconceptualising Strict Liability for the Tort of Another by Christine Beuermann (2021) 137 LQR 347-352

Review of Trials of the State: Law and the Decline of Politics by Lord Sumption (2020) 136 LQR 340-343

Review of Sanctity of Contracts in a Secular Age: Equity, Fairness and Enrichment by Stephen Waddams (2020) 136 LQR 169-173

Review of A Company's Right to Damages for Non-Pecuniary Loss by Vanessa Wilcox (2019) 135 LQR 172-175

Review of The Dignity of Commerce; Markets and the Moral Foundations of Contract Law by Nathan B Oman (2018) 134 LQR 677-680

Review of Lord Sumption and the Limits of Law, edited by NW Barber, Richard Ekins and Paul Yowell (2018) 134 LQR 160-164

Review of Entick v Carrington: 250 Years of the Rule of Law, edited by Adam Tomkins and Paul Scott (2017) 133 LQR 529-533

Review of A History of Tort Law 1900-1950 by Paul Mitchell (2016) 132 LQR 688

Review of Leading Cases in Song by Stephen Todd (2015) 131 LQR 166

Review of Tort Law and the Legislature: Common Law, Statute and the Dynamics of Legal Change edited by TT Arvind and Jenny Steele (2013) 129 LQR 640

Review of Mistake and Non-Disclosure of Fact by Hugh Beale (2013) 129 LQR 458

Review of Networks as Connected Contracts by Gunther Teubner (translated by Michelle Everson), edited with an introduction by Hugh Collins (2012) 128 LQR 472

Review of Bonfire of the Liberties: New Labour, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law by KD Ewing (2011) 127 LQR 316

Review of Emerging Issues in Tort Law edited by Jason Neyers et al (2009) 125 LQR 181

Review of The Making of the Modern Law of Defamation by Paul Mitchell (2006) 122 LQR 691

Review of A History of Water Rights at Common Law by Joshua Getzler (2005) 26 Journal of Legal History 216

Review of Public Law in a Multi-Layered Constitution edited by Nicholas Bamforth and Peter Leyland [2004] CLJ 244

Review of Private Property and Abuse of Rights in Victorian England by Michael Taggart (2003) 119 LQR 531

Case Notes

"Principles, accidents and exceptions: Psychiatric injury in tort (note of Paul v Wolverhampton [2024] UKSC 1)" [2024] CLJ 214 - 217

"A riddle wrapped in an enigma: Assumption of responsibility, again (note of HXA v Surrey CC [2022] EWCA Civ 1196)" [2022] CLJ 449-452

"Maintaining the elegant facade of the acts-omissions distinction (note of Tindall v Chief Constable of Thames Valley [2022] EWCA Civ 25)" [2022] CLJ 245-248

"The thin end of the wedge: Morality, contract law and lawful act duress (Times Travel v Pakistan International Airlines [2021] UKSC 40)" [2022] CLJ 17-20

"Frustration and the pandemic" (2021) 137 LQR 563-568

"Pseudo-codification of the public-interest defence in defamation (Serafin v Malkiewicz [2020] UKSC 23)" [2020] CLJ 398-401

"(Net) curtains for modern architecture? Privacy, nuisance and human rights (Fearn v Tate Gallery [2019] EWHC 246 (Ch))" [2019] CLJ 273-276

"Novely in negligence: Policy reasoning survives (James-Bowen v MPC [2018] UKSC 40)" [2019] CLJ 15-18

"The outer limits of 'personal injury' (Dryden v Johnson Matthey plc [2018] UKSC 18)" [2018] CLJ 461-464

"Parallel lines that never meet: Tort and the ECHR again (DSD v Metropolitan Police Commissioner [2018] UKSC 11)" [2018] CLJ 244-248

"Repudiatory breach: Inability, election and discharge (MSC v Cottonex [2016] EWCA Civ 789)" [2017] CLJ 11

"The Penalty Clause Doctrine: Unloveable but Untouchable (Beavis v ParkingEye; Cavendish Square v El Makdessi)" [2016] CLJ 11-14

"Tumultuous controversy: Police liability for rioting (Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance v Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (CA))" [2015] CLJ 398

"Resisting judicial review of discretionary contractual powers (Braganza v BP Shipping Ltd)" [2015] LMCLQ 483

"Reinterpreting the reinterpretation of the reinterpretation of Fairchild (IEG v Zurich Insurance)" [2015] CLJ 395

"Mitigation and the date for assessment of damages in sales of land (Hooper v. Oates [2013] EWCA Civ 91)" (2013) 29 Jo Prof Neg 125

"Negligence: Into Battle (Smith v. MoD [2012] EWCA 1365)" [2013] CLJ 14-17

"Manslaughter as a "vicissitude of life" (Gray v. Thames Trains)" [2009] CLJ 503

"Causation and the compulsive gambler (note of Calvert v. William Hill)" [2009] CLJ 268

"Note of The Golden Victory, House of Lords" [2007] CLJ 263

"Note of Re Pleural Plaques Litigation, Court of Appeal" [2006] CLJ 269

"Note of Douglas v. Hello! (No. 2), Court of Appeal" [2005] CLJ 549

"Note of Jackson v. Royal Bank of Scotland, House of Lords" [2005] CLJ 285

"Note of Gregg v. Scott, House of Lords" [2005] LMCLQ 281

"Slowing the expansion of public authorities' liability (note of Gorringe v. Calderdale MBC)" (2005) 121 LQR 43

"Privacy in the House of Lords, again (note of Campbell v. MGN)" (2004) 120 LQR 563

"Privacy torts: out with the old, out with the new (note of Wainwright v. Home Office, House of Lords)" (2004) 120 LQR 393

"Lost causes in the House of Lords (note of Fairchild v. Glenhaven Funeral Services)" (2003) 66 MLR 277

"Jus suum cuique (note of Vellino v. Chief Constable of Manchester, Court of Appeal)" (2002) 118 LQR 527

"Nuisance, property and human rights (note of Marcic v. Thames Water Utilities, QBD)" (2002) 118 LQR 27

Blog Posts

"Should the Bill of Rights apply to overseas military operations?" Jul 2022, Constitutional Law Matters

Reports

"Oral evidence to Public Bill Committee: Judicial Review and Courts Bill" (, Nov 2021)

"Written evidence to Public Bill Committee: Judicial Review and Courts Bill" (House of Commons, Nov 2021) JRCB12

"Oral evidence to Public Bill Committee: Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill" (, Oct 2020)

"Written evidence to Public Bill Committee: Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill" (, Oct 2020)

"Derogation from the ECHR in armed conflict: Submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights" (, Apr 2017)

"Clearing the Fog of Law: Saving our armed forces from defeat by judicial diktat" (Policy Exchange, Mar 2015)

"Military Negligence: Reforming Tort Liability after Smith v. Ministry of Defence" (Evidence to House of Commons Defence Committe, 12th Report for Session 2013-4, UK Armed Forces Personnel and the Legal Framework for Future Operations, Apr 2014) HC 931

""Military Casualties: Alternatives to Tort Compensation" (Evidence to House of Commons Defence Committee inquiry, Jan 2014)" (, Jan 2014)