I am a Canadian and grew up in Canada (apart from three years as a boy in Surrey!). I was educated in the Ontario state school system, and studied philosophy and zoology before law. I went on to postgraduate work in the UK, including my doctorate at Lincoln College, Oxford, on the law of tracing. I first started teaching law at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, and then was a fellow of St. Hugh’s college for four years. After that, I taught for 22 years at McGill University in Montreal, whose law faculty teaches both civil law and common law. In 2022 I was appointed Downing Professor of the Laws of England at Cambridge University, and in 2024 I was appointed Professor of Comparative Law in Oxford.

I am a scholar of comparative law, with particular attention to the loyal use of power, in private and public law. Most of my work, however, has been in private law, including the law of property, trusts, succession, fiduciary relations, restitution, and unjust enrichment. I aim to discover insights from how different legal systems conceptualize and regulate similar problems.

Many of my papers are on SSRN: http://ssrn.com/author=118243