LSE Law School's rich tradition in private law ranges from doctrinal and comparative analyses of contract, torts, unjust enrichment and property law, to broader histories and theories of private law. One distinguishing feature of our private law tradition is its emphasis on the continuity between general common law principles and the more specialized regimes of commercial, labour and consumer law. Another is its strong interest in the social and political context of private law and its real-world impact on vulnerable or weaker parties.
Eminent LSE staff who have taught and researched on private law in the past include Lord Wright, Theo Chorley, Harold Gutteridge, Sir Otto Kahn-Freund, L.C.B. (Jim) Gower, Aubrey Diamond, Bill Cornish, Baron (Bill) Wedderburn, Sir Ross Cranston, and Hugh Collins. The law school currently has a thriving private law community (listed below), and holds regular seminars, including the Private Law Forum series, to discuss work on these topics by LSE faculty and scholars from other institutions. The Private Law Forum is currently convened by Nick Sage and Andrew Summers.
- Hugh Collins 'Interpersonal justice as partial justice' (2022) European Law Open 1 (2) 413-422
- Solene Rowan, ‘Comparative Observations on Punishment in Private Law' in E Bant, J Goudkamp, J Patterson and W Courtney (ed) Punishment and Private Law (Hart, 2021) pp 63-82
- Solene Rowan, 'Problems of Contractual Interpretation: English and French Law Compared' Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly (May 2020 volume) pp.273-296
- Solene Rowan, 'The Reform of French Contrat Law: the Struggle for Coherency' in TT Arving and J Steele (ed) Contract Law and the Legislature (2020 Hart Publishing) pp. 219-236
- Tatiana Cutts, 'Smart contracts and Consumers' LSE Law Working Paper Series 01/2019
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Solene Rowan, 'The "Legitimate Interest in Performance" in the Law on Penalties'Cambridge Law Journal (2019) pp. 1-27
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Tatiana Cutts, 'Dummy asset tracing' L.Q.R. (2019) 135 (Jan) pp.140-165; first published as a working paper: 'Dummy asset tracing'LSE Law Working Paper Series 04/2018
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Charlie Webb 'Three concepts of rights, two of property' O.J.L.S. (2018) 38 (2) pp.246-269
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Charlie Webb, 'Performance damages' in G Virgo and S Worthington (eds), Commercial Remedies: Resolving Controversies (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
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Paul MacMahon, 'Conflict and Contract Law' Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (first published online, April 2018)
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Tatiana Cutts, 'Modern money had and received' (2018) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 38 (1) pp.1-25
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Solene Rowan, 'Termination for Contractual Non-Performance' in J Cartwright and S Whittaker (eds) The Code Napoléon Rewritten: French Contract Law after the 2016 Reforms (Hart Publishing 2017) 317
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Andrew Summers, ‘Mitigation and Causation of Benefits’ [2018] Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 2018, 1(Feb), 171-184 (with David McLauchlan)
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Emmanuel Voyiakis, 'Causation and Opportunity in Tort'Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (2017) 38 (1), 26-47.
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Andrew Summers, ‘Thinking in Terms of Contract Defences’ in Dyson, Goudkamp & Wilmot-Smith (eds), Defences in Contract (Hart Publishing, 2017) (with James Goudkamp & Frederick Wilmot-Smith) 1-16
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Solene Rowan 'The new French law of contract' International & Comparative Law Quarterly (2017)
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Emmanuel Voyiakis Private Law and the Value of Choice (Hart Publishing: 2017)
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Solene Rowan, 'Resisting Termination: Some Comparative Observations' in A Dyson, J Goudkamp, F Wilmot-Smith (eds) Defences in Contract (Hart, Oxford 2017) 163.
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Andrew Summers, ‘Cooperation, Termination and the Agreed Sum’ in Graham Virgo and Sarah Worthington (eds), Commercial Remedies: Resolving Controversies (CUP, 2017)
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Joseph Spooner, 'Recalling The Public Interest in Personal Insolvency Law: A Note on Professor Fletcher's Foresigh' in Burdette et al., Nottingham Insolvency and Business Law eJournal Special Edition Festschrift in Honour of Professor Ian Fletcher QC, 537 (20170
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Andrew Summers, 'Unresolved issues in the law on penalties' Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 2017, 1 (Jan), 95-121.
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Andrew Dyson, James Goudkamp and Frederick Wilmot-Smith, eds. Defences in Contract (Hart Publishing, 2017)
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Andrew Dyson, James Goudkamp and Frederick Wilmot-Smith, eds. Defences in Unjust Enrichment (Hart Publishing, 2016)
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Andrew Summers, 'Deceit, difference in value and date of assessment' (2017) Law Quarterly Review, 133 . pp. 41-4
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Tatiana Cutts, 'Tracing, Value and Transactions' (2016) 79 The Modern Law Review 381
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Jo Braithwaite 'Central Counterparties (CCPs) and the law of default management' Journal of Corporate Law Studies (2016)
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Jo Braithwaite, 'The Dilemma of Client Clearing in the OTC Derivatives Markets'European Business Organization Law Review (2016)
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Jo Braithwaite, 'Got to be certain: The legal framework for CCP default management processes' (2016) Bank of England Financial Stability Paper 37
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Jo Braithwaite, 'The origins and implications of contractual estoppel' (2016) 13 (2) Law Quarterly Review 120-147
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Andrew Murray, Information technology law: the law and society (Oxford, 2016)
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Nick Sage, Response: 'Third-Party Beneficiaries and the Nature of Contract' 90 Tulane Law Review Online 1 (2016).
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Nick Sage 'Disgorgement - From Property To Contract' 66 University of Toronto Law Journal 244 (2016)
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Andrew Summers, ‘Choice, Benefits and the Basis of the Market Rule’ [2016] LMCLQ 202-206
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Andrew Scott, Reform of Defamation Law in Northern Ireland (Department of Finance, 2016)
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Andrew Scott, 'Ceci n’est pas une pipe: the autopoietic inanity of the single meaning rule in libel law', in Kenyon (ed) Comparative Defamation and Privacy Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
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Andrew Scott 'An Unwholesome Layer Cake: intermediary liability in English defamation and data protection law' in Mangan and Gilles (eds), The Legal Challenges of Social Media (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar) [FORTHCOMING]
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Andrew Scott, Newsgathering: Law, Regulation and the Public Interest (Oxford University Press, 2016) (with Gavin Millar QC)
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Charlie Webb, Reason and Restitution: A Theory of Unjust Enrichment (Oxford University Press: 2016)
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Charlie Webb, 'The Myth of the Remedial Constructive Trust'Current Legal Problems (2016) 69 (1) pp.353-376
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Paul MacMahon 'Good Faith and Fair Dealing as an Underenforced Legal Norm'Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series WPS 22-2014 December 2014; Minnesota Law Review (2015) 99 (6)
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Solene Rowan 'Conditions – Art 5.3.1-5.3.5' in S Vogenauer (ed), Commentary on the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (Oxford University Press, 2015)
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Solene Rowan, 'Moral Damages – Report on French Law' in V Palmer (ed), The Recovery of Non-Pecuniary Loss in European Contract Law (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
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Andrew Dyson, James Goudkamp and Frederick Wilmot-Smith, eds. Defences in Tort Law (Hart Publishing 2015)
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Astrid Sanders, 'The impact of the 'Ruggie Framework' and the 'United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights' on transnational human rights litigation, in The Business and Human Rights Landscape: Moving Forward, Looking Back. Edited by Jena Martin and Karen E Bravo (CUP 2015)
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Michael Lobban, 'Mapping the Common Law: some lessons from History' (2014) New Zealand Law Review pp. 21-67
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Michael Lobban, 'Special issue the Great War and private law: Introduction'Comparative Legal History (2014) 2 (2). pp. 163-183
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Andrew Dyson, 'There is No Breach Date Rule: Mitigation, Difference in Value and Date of Assessment' (2014) 130 LQR 259-281 (co-written with Adam Kramer), cited with approval in Hirtenstein v Hill Dickinson LLP [2014] EWHC 2711 (Comm) [117] and [154] (Leggatt J)
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Charlie Webb, 'Contract as fact and as reason' in G Klass, G Letsas and P Saprai (eds), Philosophical Foundations of Contract Law (Oxford University Press, 2014)
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Devika Hovell 'The Gulf Between Tortious and Torturous: UK Responsibility for Mistreatment of the Mau Mau in Colonial Kenya' Journal of International Criminal Justice (2013) 11 (1) p.223-245
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Charlie Webb, 'Reasons for restitution' in S Elliott, B Häcker and C Mitchell (eds), Restitution of Overpaid Tax(Hart Publishing, 2013)