Professional practice
Jonathan Morgan has been an academic lawyer at Oxford and Cambridge Universities for 25 years. He was appointed Professor of English Law at Cambridge in 2023.
He was called to the Bar in 2024 and following pupillage at Essex Court Chambers, became a member of chambers in 2025.
His areas of expertise range across commercial and contract law, tort law / professional negligence, and public law / human rights.
- Arbitration & related court applications
During pupillage, sat with two senior members of chambers hearing a one-week LCIA arbitration.
- Civil fraud & asset recovery
During pupillage, observed two-day hearing before Leech J (Louise Hutton KC applying for a worldwide freezing order and proprietary injunction).
- Commercial dispute resolution
Over 20 years’ experience teaching contract and commercial law at Cambridge University, articles in journals such as LQR, LMCLQ and CLJ, and books including Contract Law Minimalism (CUP 2013) and (as joint editor) Mandatory and Default Rules in Contract and Commercial Law (Hart 2026, forthcoming).
During pupillage, assisted Paul Stanley KC during two, four-week long High Court commercial trials (in Commercial Court and Chancery Division). Assistance with drafting closing skeletons / submissions.
- Company & insolvency law / corporate recovery
During pupillage, drafted submissions for counterclaim involving disputed suspension of shareholders’ rights to participate in company’s general meeting.
- Human rights & civil liberties
Publications in the area include:
- “Amateur Operatics: The Realization of Parliamentary Protection of Civil Liberties” in T Campbell et al (eds), The Legal Protection of Human Rights: Sceptical Essays (OUP 2011)
- “Questioning the ‘True Effect’ of the Human Rights Act” [2002] Legal Studies 259
- Insurance & reinsurance
During pupillage, drafted submissions for quantum hearing in arbitration between two major US insurers.
- Media, art, entertainment
Have delivered lectures on the law of defamation since 2015 (University of Cambridge).
- Professional negligence
Over 20 years’ experience as a lecturer in Tort at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Articles in the Journal of Professional Negligence include:
- “Nonfeasance and the end of policy? Reflections on the revolution in public authority liability” (2019) 35 Prof Neg 32
- “Abolishing personal injuries law? A response to Lord Sumption” (2018) 34 Prof Neg 122
- “Vicarious liability for independent contractors?” (2015) 31 Prof Neg 235
- “The rise and fall of the general duty of care” (2006) 22 Prof Neg 206-224
- Shipping & admiralty
Provided research and submissions for members of chambers (Steven Berry KC and Adam Board) involved in Court of Appeal hearing in The Skyros, October 2025 (on appeal from Hapag-Lloyd v Skyros Maritime [2024] EWHC 3139 (Comm)) .
- Career
Professor of English Law, University of Cambridge since 2023. (Formerly: University Lecturer 2005-09 and 2012-15; Senior Lecturer 2015-19; Reader in English Law 2019-23)
Fellow and Director of Studies in Law, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge since 2012. (Formerly: Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge 2004-09 and Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford 2009-12)
Chairman-elect of the Faculty Board of Law, University of Cambridge (2026-29)
- Education
BA in Jurisprudence (First Class Honours), Balliol College, Oxford (1998)
PhD in Law, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (2008)
- Awards
Markby Scholar, Balliol College, Oxford (1997-98)
Arts and Humanities Research Council PhD Scholarship (2002-04)
- Publications
Sole-authored books:
Great Debates in Tort Law (Hart 2022)
Contract Law Minimalism: A Formalist Restatement of Commercial Contract Law (CUP 2013)
(Shortlisted for Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship, Society of Legal Scholars)
Great Debates in Contract Law (1st edn 2012, 2nd edn 2015, 3rd edn 2020)
Jointly-edited collections:
Mandatory and Default Rules in Contract and Commercial Law (Hart 2026, forthcoming)
Torts on Three Continents: Honouring Jane Stapleton (OUP 2024)
Hepple and Matthews’ Tort Law: Cases and Materials (7th edn, Hart 2015)
Selected essays and journal articles:
‘Sir Mackenzie Chalmers (1847-1927)’ in J Goudkamp and D Nolan (eds), Scholars of Commercial Law (Hart 2026, forthcoming)
“Tort as a Tool of Government Policy: Section 38 of the Building Act 1984” in M Bell et al, Private Law and Building Safety (Hart 2025)
“The British Politics of Medical Negligence Reform: ‘Protecting Our NHS’ from Claims in Tort” in Jodi Gardner et al, Politics, Policy and Private Law (Hart 2024)
“Compulsion, Choice and Statutory Intervention in Contract: Implied Terms of Quality in Sale of Goods” in TT Arvind and J Steele (eds), Contract Law and the Legislature (Hart 2020)
“Opting for ‘Documentary Fundamentalism’: Respecting Party Choice for Entire Agreement and Non-Reliance Clauses” in Paul S Davies & Magda Raczynska (eds), Contents of Commercial Contracts: Terms Affecting Freedoms (Hart 2020)
“Contract Damages as Default Rules” in David Campbell and Roger Halson (eds), Research Handbook on Remedies in Private Law (Edward Elgar 2019)
“Contracting for self-denial: on enforcing ‘no oral modification’ clauses” [2017] CLJ 589
“On the Nature and Function of Remedies for Breach of Contract” in S Worthington and G Virgo (eds), Commercial Remedies: Resolving Controversies (CUP 2017)
“Torts and Technology” in R Brownsword et al, The Oxford Handbook of Law, Regulation, and Technology (OUP 2017)
“Smuggling mitigation into White & Carter v McGregor: Time to come clean?” [2015] LMCLQ 575
“Liability for Independent Contractors in Contract and Tort: Duties to Ensure that Care is Taken” [2015] CLJ 109
“Reflections on reforming punitive damages in English law” in L Meurkens and E Nordin (eds), The Power of Punitive Damages – Is Europe Missing Out? (Intersentia 2012)
“Causation, Politics and Law: The English – and Scottish – Asbestos Saga” in RS Goldberg (ed), Perspectives on Causation (Hart 2011)
“Technological change and the development of liability for fault in England and Wales” in M Martin-Casals (ed), The Development of Liability in Relation to Technological Change (CUP 2010)
“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
“Tort, insurance and incoherence” (2004) 67 MLR 384 (awarded Modern Law Review’s Wedderburn Prize)
“Privacy, confidence and horizontal effect” [2003] CLJ 444
“Nuisance and the unruly tenant” [2001] CLJ 382-404
