Professor Phillip Morgan
MA (Cantab.), BCL (Oxon.), PhD (UCL), FRSA, VR, Barrister

Chair of Private Law

I teach and research tort, contract, and commercial law. Within the law of tort I am particularly interested in vicarious liability, volunteers, comparative tort law, artificial intelligence, and “tort reform”. I am the editor of two books: The Cambridge Handbook of Private Law and Artificial Intelligence (Cambridge University Press), (with Ernest Lim), and Tort Liability and Autonomous Systems Accidents, (Edward Elgar). I have published in the Cambridge Law Journal, Modern Law Review, Law Quarterly Review, Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, Legal Studies, the Journal of Professional Negligence, and the Torts Law Journal, amongst others.

My academic work has been used in argument before the UK Supreme Court, cited with approval by the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of Ireland, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the High Court in Malaysia, and also by government bodies and reports in the UK, Switzerland, and Australia, including the Law Commission. I have worked, and/or am currently working on a number of major projects, funded by the European Research Council, Medical Protection Society, EPSRC, and AHRC. I am also the Law Lead on York’s £8 million multidisciplinary doctoral training centre on Safe AI ("SAINTS").

I am the Book Review and Review Article Editor of the Journal of Professional Negligence, and an Editor of the Professional Negligence and Liability Reports. I was formerly the Torts Subject Section Convenor for the Society of Legal Scholars.

Prior to joining York I taught at Southampton, and Girton College, Cambridge. I have been the Robert S Campbell Visiting Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, a Visiting Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, a Visiting Associate Professor, and also a Sino-British Trust Fellow at the University of Hong Kong, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, a Visiting Scholar of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, a Visitor at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, and the Cambridge Private Law Centre, a Visiting Scholar of St John’s College, Oxford, as well as a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University Law Center.

I read law at Girton College, Cambridge, (Starred First and Top of Law Tripos Part IB), Christ Church, Oxford, (BCL (Distinction)), University College London, (PhD), and the College of Law, (BVC (Outstanding)), winning 18 University, College, and Inn scholarships and prizes. I was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple (First in Seniority, Trinity 2007)

I am also a Barrister. I completed pupillage at Essex Court Chambers, (Commercial / Shipping / Civil Fraud / International Trade / Arbitration), where I mainly worked on large Commercial Court and Arbitral Tribunal cases, before moving to Crown Office Chambers, (Insurance / Personal Injury / Clinical Negligence / Construction), where I regularly appeared in trials and applications in the County Courts. I also appeared in the High Court, Companies Court, and in the Coroner’s Court. I have also been Judicial Assistant to Lord Judge, The Lord Chief Justice, and also to Lord Carnwath, Justice of the Supreme Court, (then Senior President of Tribunals).

I also sit as a part time judge. I am a Fee-Paid Judge of the Employment Tribunal of England and Wales, and a Fee-Paid Judge of the First-tier Tribunal, assigned to the Social Entitlement Chamber.

I am a Council Member of the Society of Legal Scholars, and a Member of the Society’s Library Sub-Committee.

I have supervised, (or supervise) PhD projects on efficient breach in commercial contract law, liability within the gig economy, the role of subsequent conduct within the interpretation of contracts, liability and the Manosphere, AI and open banking regulations, persuasive technology and contract law, and robo-journalism and defamation.  My former PhD students hold academic appointments (including at York), or are in legal practice.  I am always interested in hearing from potential research students wishing to undertake PhD studies at York Law School in my fields of specialism. I have externally examined PhD theses both in the UK and abroad, and I am also always happy to externally examine PhD theses within my research interests.