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Email

jws43@cam.ac.uk

University Assistant Professor in Legal History

Interests

My research focuses on the history of private law in England and Europe, with a focus on medieval England and medieval and early modern Europe. I am particularly interested in the ways in which legal doctrine has been influenced by other intellectual forces, with recent research focusing on the extent to which early modern delict (tort) was shaped by theological debates. I also have interests in ancient legal systems. 

CV / Biography

I read Law (BA) and Medieval History (MPhil) at Trinity College, Cambridge, and stayed on for a PhD supervised by Prof. David Ibbetson. This was published as The Historical Foundations of Grotius's Analysis of Delict (Brill, 2017), and the PhD version was awarded a Yorke Prize. I moved to Selwyn College to take up the David Li Fellowship in Law (2015-2018), before going to Oxford as an Associate Professor in Law and Tutorial Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford (2018-2022). I returned to Cambridge and Trinity in October 2022.

Selected publications

 

Books

Essays in Law and History for David Ibbetson (ed), 2025)

Co-editor(s):
Stelios Tofaris
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
9781509970650
Published Jan 2025

Principle and Pragmatism in Roman Law (with Benjamin Spagnolo), 2020)

Co-Author/s:
Benjamin Spagnolo
Published Nov 2020

The Historical Foundations of Grotius’s Analysis of Delict , 2017)

Publisher:
Published Nov 2017

Articles

"The Place of Fault in Grotius’s Conception of Liability for Wrongdoing" 42 Grotiana 53

Citation:
42 Grotiana 53
Published: Jul 2021

"The Limits of Natural Law: Liability for Wrongdoing in the Inleidinge" 40 Grotiana 7

Citation:
40 Grotiana 7
Published: Jan 2019

"Maitland and Europe" Zeitschrift für Europäisches Privatrecht

Citation:
Zeitschrift für Europäisches Privatrecht
Published: Forthcoming

Book Chapters

"Felling Trees: From Mesopotamia to Rome", Essays in Law and History for David Ibbetson, 2024)

Published Dec 2024

"Principle and Pragmatism" (with Benjamin Spagnolo), Principle and Pragmatism in Roman Law , 2020)

Published Nov 2020

"Explaining D. 41.1.36", Principle and Pragmatism in Roman Law, 2020)

Published Nov 2020

"Revisiting D.9.2.23.1" in Paul du Plessis (ed(s)), Wrongful Damage to Property in Roman Law: British Perspectives , 2018)

Published May 2018

"Central and Local Legal Responses to the Plague of 1603 " in Emily Gordon, Charles Mitchell and Ian Williams (ed(s)), Epidemics and the Law from Plague to the Present), forthcoming

Published Forthcoming