
dji22@cam.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor of Civil Law (Regius)
Research centres and interest groups
Selected publications
Books
Cambridge Comparative History of Ancient Law (ed) (Cambridge University Press, 2024)
English Legal History and its Sources (with N Jones and N Ramsay), 2019)

ISBN 13:
978-1-108-48306-3
Limitation and Prescription: A Comparative Legal History (with H Dondorp and E Schrage) (Duncker and Humblot, 2019)

Publisher:
ISBN 13:
978-3-428-15626-9
Sir William Jones, Essay on the Law of Bailments (ed) (Welsh Legal History Society, 2007)
Publisher:
Law and Legal Process: Substantive Law and Procedure in English Legal History (with Dr Matt Dyson) (eds), 2013)
ISBN:
1107040582
ISBN 13:
978-1107040588
European Legal Development: The Case of Tort (with J Bell), 2012)
ISBN 13:
978-1-107-02177-8
Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (English section) (ed) (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Publisher:
Common Law and Ius Commune (Selden Society, 2001)
Publisher:
A Historical Introduction to the Law of Obligations (Oxford University Press, 1999)
Publisher:
ISBN:
019876412X
ISBN 13:
978-0198764120
The Roman Law Tradition (ed), 1994)
ISBN:
0521441994
ISBN 13:
9780521441995
Articles
'The Requirement of a Deed in the Action of Covenant' (2021) 42 Jnl Leg Hist 233
Citation:
(2021) 42 Jnl Leg Hist 233
Published: Nov 2021
'The Renaissance of English Legal History' [2021] CLJ s91
Citation:
[2021] CLJ s91
Published: Sep 2021
'Milsom's Legal History' [2017] CLJ 360
Citation:
[2017] CLJ 360
DOI:
10.1017/S0008197317000241
Published: Jul 2017
'English Legal History 1999-2011: A Select Bibliography' (2012) 34 Zeitschrift fur Neuere Rechtsgeschichte 263-272
Citation:
(2012) 34 Zeitschrift fur Neuere Rechtsgeschichte 263-272
Published: Jul 2013
'The Challenges of Comparative Legal History' (2013) 1 Comparative Legal History 1
Citation:
(2013) 1 Comparative Legal History 1
Published: Jul 2013
'Athletics in Ancient Law' (2012) 12 (2) Legal Information Management 98-101
Citation:
(2012) 12 (2) Legal Information Management 98-101
Published: Jul 2012
'More Grief on Uncertain Causation in Tort' [2-11] CLJ 451
Citation:
[2-11] CLJ 451
Published: Nov 2011
'Law and Custom: Insurance in Sixteenth-Century England' [2008] Jnl Leg Hist 292
Citation:
[2008] Jnl Leg Hist 292
Published: Sep 2009
'English Legal Periodicals, 1820-1870' (2006) Zeitschrift für Neuere Rechtsgeschichte 175
Citation:
(2006) Zeitschrift für Neuere Rechtsgeschichte 175
Published: Sep 2006
'English Law and the European Ius Commune 1450-1650' [2006] Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 115
Citation:
[2006] Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 115
Published: Sep 2006
'Historical Reflections on the Compensation Culture’' 1 Journal of Law 100
Citation:
1 Journal of Law 100
Published: Sep 2005
'Wrongs and Responsibility in Pre-Roman Law' (2004) 25 Journal of Legal History 99
Citation:
(2004) 25 Journal of Legal History 99
Published: Sep 2004
'How the Romans did for Us: Ancient Roots of the Tort of Negligence' (2003) 26 University of New South Wales Law Journal 475
Citation:
(2003) 26 University of New South Wales Law Journal 475
Published: Sep 2003
'Sir William Jones' (2001) 7 Trans Hon Soc Cymmrodorion 66-82
Citation:
(2001) 7 Trans Hon Soc Cymmrodorion 66-82
Published: Sep 2001
'Natural Law and Common Law' (2001) 5 Edinburgh Law Review 4
Citation:
(2001) 5 Edinburgh Law Review 4
Published: Sep 2001
'Legal Printing and Legal Doctrine' (2000) 35 Irish Jurist 345
Citation:
(2000) 35 Irish Jurist 345
Published: Sep 2000
''The Law of Business Rome’: Foundations of the Anglo-American Tort of Negligence’' [1999] Current Legal Problems 74
Citation:
[1999] Current Legal Problems 74
Published: Sep 1999
'Fault and Absolute Liability in Pre-Modern Contract Law' (1997) 18 Journal of Legal History 1
Citation:
(1997) 18 Journal of Legal History 1
Published: Sep 1997
'Coventry’s Reports' (1995) 16 Journal of Legal History 281
Citation:
(1995) 16 Journal of Legal History 281
Published: Sep 1995
'From Property to Contract: The Transformation of Sale in the Middle Ages’' (1992) 13 Journal of Legal History 1
Citation:
(1992) 13 Journal of Legal History 1
Published: Sep 1992
'Sale of Goods in the Fourteenth Century' (1991) 107 Law Quarterly Review 480
Citation:
(1991) 107 Law Quarterly Review 480
Published: Sep 1991
'Common Lawyers and the Law before the Civil War' (1988) 8 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 142
Citation:
(1988) 8 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 142
Published: Sep 1988
'Implied Contracts and Restitution' (1988) 8 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 312
Citation:
(1988) 8 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 312
Published: Sep 1988
'Words and Deeds: the Action of Covenant in the Reign of Edward I' (1986) 4 Law and History Review 71
Citation:
(1986) 4 Law and History Review 71
Published: Sep 1986
'Law, Religion and Revolution in the Twelfth Century' (1986) 6 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 137
Citation:
(1986) 6 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 137
Published: Sep 1986
'Sixteenth Century Contract Law: Slade’s Case in Context' (1984) 4 OJLS 295
Citation:
(1984) 4 OJLS 295
Published: Sep 1984
'Assumpsit and Debt in the Early Sixteenth Century' [1982] CLJ 142
Citation:
[1982] CLJ 142
Published: Sep 1982
'Mental Element for Complicity' (1982) 2 OJLS 287
Book Chapters
"Acta et Agenda" in J Sampson and S Tofaris (ed(s)), Essays in Law and History for David Ibbetson: Querrella (Hart Publishing, 2024), pp. 3-14
"Gardiner v Gray" in J Gardner and I Ramsay (ed(s)), Landmark Cases in Consumer Law (Hart Publishing, 2024), pp. 39-54
"Wilkes v Wood (1763)" in J Goudcamp and E Katsampouka (ed(s)), Landmark Cases in Punitive Damages (Hart Publishing, 2023), pp. 19-26
"What's in a Name? Historical Foundations of Unjust(ified) Enrichment" in S Turenne (ed(s)), Reasons and Context in Comparative Law (Cambridge University Press, 2023), pp. 65-93
"Comparative Legal History: Conscience and Equity" in H de Jong (ed(s)), Secundum Doctores (Amsterdam University Press, 2023), pp. 36-55
"Law Reporting, Authority and Precedent: the Common Law paradigm" in Guido Rossi (ed(s)), Authorities in Early Modern Courts (Edinburgh University Press, 2021), pp. 125-139
"Writing, Speaking and the Roman Stipulatio" in B Spagnolo, J Sampson (ed(s)), Principle and Pragmatism in Roman Law (Hart Publishing, 2020), pp. 99-115
"Development in Common Law" in E Bant, K Barker, S Degeling (ed(s)), Research Handbook on Unjust Enrichment and Restitution (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020), pp. 28-40

Publisher:
Pages:
28-40
ISBN 13:
978-1-78811-425-7
Published Sep 2020
"Introduction" (with H Dondorp, E Schrage) in D Ibbetson, H Dondorp, E Schrage (ed(s)), Limitation and Prescription: a Comparative Legal History (Duncker and Humblot, 2019)
"Limitation and Prescription in Early-Modern England" in D Ibbetson, H Dondorp, E Schrage (ed(s)), Limitation and Prescription: a Comparative Legal History (Duncker and Humblot, 2019)
"Arbitration before 1996" (with J Kelsoe) in H Puschmann (ed(s)), Challenges in Arbitration (Lexis-Nexis/Butterworths, 2019)
"Unjust Enrichment and Lord Mansfield" in M Schermaier, H Dondorp, B Sirks (ed(s)), De Rebus Divinis et Humanis (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2019)
"Errores in Camera Scaccarii" in D Ibbetson, N Jones, N Ramsay (ed(s)), English Legal History and its Sources, 2019)
ISBN 13:
978-1-108-48306-3
Published Jul 2019
"Natural Law in Early-Modern Legal Thought" in M Godfrey, H Pihlajamäki, and M Dubber (ed(s)), Oxford Handbook of European Legal History (Oxford University Press, 2018)
"William Warwick Buckland on the Lex Aquilia" in P Du Plessis (ed(s)), Wrongful Damage to Property in Roman Law: British Perspectives (Edinburgh University Press, 2018)
Publisher:
Published Jul 2018
"Revolutions in Private Law" in S Worthington, G Virgo, A Robinson (ed(s)), Revolution and Evolution in Private Law (Hart Publishing, 2018)
Publisher:
Published Jul 2018
"Edward Coke, Roman Law, and the Law of Libel" in L Hutson (ed(s)), Oxford Handbook to English Law and Literature, 1500-1700 (Oxford University Press, 2017)
"Obligatio in Roman Law and Society" in P Du Plessis, C Ando, K Tuori (ed(s)), Oxford Handbook of Roman Law and Society (Oxford University Press, 2016)
"Cause and Consideration: Motive and Exchange in English Contract Law" in B Rodriquez-Rosado, R C Gandara, A Legeren-Molina (ed(s)), Cause and Consideration (Hart Publishing, 1970), pp. 33-46
"Roman Law in Sixteenth Century England: Sir Thomas Smith" in D Freda, M Piccinini, H Pihlajamaki, C M Valsecchi (ed(s)), Borders of the Early Modern Ius Commune (Routledge, 1970), pp. 129-134
"Authority and Precedent" in M Godfrey (ed(s)), Law and Authority in British Legal History, 2016)
Published Apr 2016
"Humanism and Law in Elizabethan England: the Annotations of Gabriel Harvey" in P Du Plessis (ed(s)), Reassessing Legal Humanism (Edinburgh University Press, 2016)
Publisher:
Published Mar 2016
"The Arguments in Calvin's Case", Studies in Canon Law and Common Law in Honor of R H Helmholz (Robbins Collection, 2015), pp. 213-230
"Sources of Law from the Republic to the Dominate", Cambridge Companion to Roman Law, 2015), pp. 25-44
Pages:
25-44
Published Feb 2015
"Pleading Defences in Tort: The Historical Perspective" in A Dyson et al (ed(s)), Defences in Tort (Hart Publishing, 2015)
Publisher:
Published Jan 2015
"Iniuria, Roman and English" (with E Descheemaeker and H Scott), Iniuria and the Common Law (Hart Publishing, 2013), pp. 33-48
"The Dating of the Lex Aquilia" (with A Burrows, D Johnston, R Zimmermann), Judge and Jurist (Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 167-177
"The Assessment of Contractual Damages at Common Law in the Late Sixteenth Century" (with M Dyson and D Ibbetson), Law and legal Process, 2013), pp. 126-147
Pages:
126-147
Published Jul 2013
"Civilian and Canonist Influence on the Writ Cessavit per Biennium" (with S Jenks, J Rose, C Whittick), Laws, Lawyers and Texts (Brill, 2012), pp. 87-100
"The Earl of Oxford's Case (1615)" (with C Mitchell and P Mitchell), Landmark Cases in Equity (Hart Publishing, 2012), pp. 1-32
"Comparative Legal History: A Methodology" (with Anthony Musson and Chantal Stebbings), Making Legal History, 2012), pp. 131-145
Pages:
131-145
ISBN 13:
978-1-107-01449-7
Published Feb 2012
"The Misbehaving Judge: Two Footnotes" (with H Dondorp, J Hallebeek, T Wallinga, L Winkel), Ius Romanum - Ius Hodiernum - Ius Commune (Scientia Verlag, 2010), pp. 209-224
"The Tort of Negligence in England" (with N Jansen), The Development and Making of Legal Doctrine, 2010), pp. 46-72
Pages:
46-72
ISBN 13:
978-0-521-19412-9
Published Nov 2010
"Elizabethan Revenue Law: The Practice of the Court of Wards" (with J Tiley), Studies in the History of Tax Law, IV (Hart Publishing, 2010), pp. 107-120
"George v Skivington (1869)" (with C Mitchell and P Mitchell), Landmark Cases in the Law of Tort (Hart Publishing, 2010), pp. 69-94
Publisher:
Pages:
69-94
ISBN 13:
978-1-84946-003-3
Published Mar 2010
"Common Law Evolution: the Influence of Mixed Legal Systems" (with H MacQueen), Stair Miscellany VI (The Stair Society, 2009), pp. 267-282
"Coggs v Barnard (1703)" (with C Mitchell and P Mitchell), Landmark Cases in the Law of Contract (Hart Publishing, 2008), pp. 1ff
Publisher:
Pages:
1ff
ISBN 13:
9781841137599
Published Sep 2008
"Introduction" (with E J H Schrage), Ius Quaesitum Tertio (Duncker and Humblot, 2008), pp. 1ff
"Privity of Contract between Dutton v Poole and Tweddle v Atkinson" (with E J H Schrage), Ius Quaesitum Tertio (Duncker and Humblot, 2008)
"English Law" (with J Hallebeek and H Dondorp), Contracts for a Third Party Beneficiary (Brill, 2008)
"Custom in Medieval Law" (with J Murphy and A Perreau-Saussine), The Nature of Customary Law, 2007), pp. 151ff
Pages:
151ff
ISBN 13:
978-0521115568
Published Sep 2007
"Lamplugh v Braithwaite (1615)" (with C Mitchell and P Mitchell), Landmark Cases in the Law of Restitution (Hart Publishing, 2006), pp. 1ff
Publisher:
Pages:
1ff
ISBN 13:
978-1841135885
Published Sep 2006
"Sir William Jones and the Nature of Law" (with A Burrows and Lord Rodger), Mapping the Law (Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 619ff
Publisher:
Pages:
619ff
ISBN 13:
978-0199206551
Published Sep 2006
"High Classical Law" (with A Bowman), The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 12, 2005), pp. 184ff
Pages:
184ff
Published Sep 2005
"What is Legal History a History of?" (with A Lewis and M Lobban), Law and History (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 33ff
"Hermann Kantorowicz and Walter Ullmann" (with J Beatson and R Zimmermann), Jurists Uprooted (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 269
"Custom in the Tripartitum" (with M Rady), Custom and Law in Central Europe, 2004), pp. 1ff
Pages:
1ff
ISBN 13:
978-0954686901
Published Sep 2004
"Harmonisation of the Law of Tort and Delict" (with R Zimmermann), Grundstrukturen des Europäischen Deliktsrechts, 2003), pp. 83ff
Pages:
83ff
Published Sep 2003
"Historical Research in Law" (with P Cane and M Tushnet), Oxford Handbook of Legal Studies (Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 863ff
"Case-Law and Doctrine" (with R Schulze and M Selb), Richterrecht und Rechtsfortbildung in der Europäischen Gemeinschaft, 2003)
Published Sep 2003
"The Tort of Negligence in the Common Law in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" (with E J H Schrage), Negligence (Duncker and Humblot, 2001), pp. 229ff
"Ghosts of the Past and the English Common Law" (with A Wijffels), History in Court (Ius Deco Publications, 2001), pp. 111ff
"Unjust Enrichment in English Law" (with E J H Schrage), Unjust Enrichment and the Law of Contract (Kluwer Law International, 2001), pp. 33ff
"Legal Teaching and the History of the Law of Obligations" (with D Heirbaut and D Lambrecht), Iuris Scripta Historica XIV, 2000), pp. 29ff
Pages:
29ff
Published Sep 2000
"Charles Viner and his Chair: Legal Education in Eighteenth-Century Oxford" (with J Bush and A Wijffels), Learning the Law (The Hambledon Press, 1999), pp. 315ff
"Sir William Jones as a Comparative Lawyer" (with A Murray), Sir William Jones, 1746-94, 1998), pp. 19ff
Pages:
19ff
Published Sep 1998
"Reply to Professor Zimmermann" (with T G Watkin), The Europeanisation of Law, 1998), pp. 224ff
Pages:
224ff
ISBN 13:
978-0904281132
Published Sep 1998
"Report and Record in the Early-Modern Common Law" (with A Wijffels), Case Law in the Making (Duncker and Humblot, 1997), pp. 1.55ff, 2.27ff
"The Techniques and Methods of Judicial Records and Law Reports" (with A Wijffels), Case Law in the Making (Duncker and Humblot, 1997), pp. 13ff
"Case-Law and Judicial Precedents in Mediaeval and Early-Modern England" (with S Dauchy), Auctoritates: Xenia R C van Caenegem Oblata, 1997), pp. 55ff
Pages:
55ff
Published Sep 1997
"Absolute Liabilty in Contract: the Antecedents of Paradine v. Jayne" (with F D Rose), Consensus ad Idem, 1996), pp. 1ff
Pages:
1ff
Published Sep 1996
"Juge et Jury dans le Common Law Anglais" (with R Jacob), Le Juge et le Jugement dans les Traditions Juridiques Européennes, 1996), pp. 89ff
Pages:
89ff
Published Sep 1996
"Unjust Enrichment in England before 1600" (with E J H Schrage), Unjust Enrichment, 1995), pp. 121ff
Pages:
121ff
Published Sep 1995
"The Danger of Definition: Contrectatio and Appropriation" (with D J Ibbetson and A D E Lewis), The Roman Law Tradition, 1994), pp. 54ff
Pages:
54ff
Published Sep 1994
"The Roman Law Tradition" (with D J Ibbetson and A D E Lewis), The Roman Law Tradition, 1994)
Published Sep 1994
"Consideration and the Theory of Contract" (with J L Barton), Towards a General Law of Contract, 1990), pp. 67ff
Pages:
67ff
Published Sep 1990