ROBERT STEVENS Professor of Commercial Law contact details: Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 1537 | internal: x2537 Email: robert.stevens@ucl.ac.uk Administrator: Phil Baker +44 (0)20 7679 1478 | internal: x21478

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Profile
Professor Robert Stevens joined the faculty in July 2007. Previously he had been a lecturer in law at the University of Oxford and a Fellow and Tutor in Law at Lady Margaret Hall where he had taught from 1994.

He read law as an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, where he also studied for the Bachelor of Civil Law. He was called to the Bar in 1992. He has taught and lectured widely both within the Commonwealth (Australia and Canada) and Continental Europe (Germany, the Netherlands, Spain). He has lectured for the Judicial Studies Board, and holds a consultancy with Clifford Chance.

Research
Professor Stevens’ research interests cover a wide range of topics within commercial law, and private law more generally. He has published within the following areas

• Contract
• Insolvency
• Private International Law
• Restitution
• Torts
• Trusts

Publications
From 2004

Book
Torts and Rights (Oxford University Press, 2007).

Edited Book
Cross Border Security and Insolvency (Oxford University Press, 2001). Co-editor (with Professor Michael Bridge).

Articles and Chapters in Books

• “The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999” (2004) 120 Law Quarterly Review 292
• “Why do agents ‘drop out’?” [2005] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 101
• “Choice of Law for Equity: Is it Possible?” in Edelman and Degling (edd.) Equity in Commercial Law (Thomson, 2005), 173
• “Three Enrichment Issues” in A Burrows and A Rodger (edd.) Mapping the Law: Essays in Memory of Peter Birks (Oxford University Press, 2006), 49
• “Security after the Enterprise Act” in J Getzler and J Payne (edd.) Company Charges: Spectrum and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 2006), 153
• “Non-Delegable Duties and Vicarious Liability” in J Neyers and S Pitel (edd) Emerging Issues in Tort Law (Hart, 2007)
• “Objectivity, Mistake and the Parol Evidence Rule” in A Burrows and E Peel (edd.) Contract Terms (Oxford University Press, 2007)
• “Is there a law of unjust enrichment?” in S Degeling and J Edelman (edd.) Unjust Enrichment and Commercial Law (Thomson, 2008)
• “Choosing the Right Approach for European Law Making” [2008] European Company and Financial Law Review 83
• “Damages and the Right to Performance: a Golden Victory or not?” in J Neyers, R Bronaugh, S Pitel (edd) Exploring Contract Law (Hart, 2009)
• “Comment and Discussion Report” in L Gullifer (ed) Current Issues in European Financial and Insolvency Law: Perspectives from France and the UK (Oxford University Press 2009)
• “Interests in Securities: Practical Problems and Conceptual Solutions” with B McFarlane in L Gullfer and J Payne (edd.) Intermediated Securities (Oxford University Press 2009)
• “Torts” in L Blom-Cooper, B Dickson and G Drewry (edd.), The Judicial House of Lords(Oxford University Press 2009)
• "The Nature of Equitable Property" (with B McFarlane) in The Journalof Equity 4 (2010) 1
• “The Conflict of Rights” in A Robertson and H Tang (edd) The Goals of Private Law (Hart, 2009) "Contractual Aspects of Debt Financing" in A Reisberg and D Prentice, Corporate Finance law in the UK and EU (2010)
• "Rights and Other Things" in A Robertson and D Nolan (edd) Rights and Private Law (Hart 2011) (Draft available http://ssrn.com/abstract=1648954 )

Casenotes

• “The Proper Scope of Knowing Receipt” on Criterion Properties v.Stratford UK Properties LLC [2004] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 421
• “An Opportunity to Reflect” on Chester v Afshar (2005) 121 Law Quarterly Review 189
• “Justified Enrichment” on Deutsche Morgan Grenfell v Inland Revenue Commissioners (2005) 5 Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal 141 – see Deutsche Morgan Grenfell v Inland Revenue Commissioners [2006] UKHL 49, [90] per Lord Scott (dissenting – unfortunately) “I should record the assistance I have had from the article “Justified Enrichment” by Robert Stevens and in particular from the section entitled “Was he Money Due?” I am in respectful agreement with the views there expressed.”
• “A Servant of Two Masters” on Viasystems v Thermal Transfer (2006) 122 Law Quarterly Review 201
• “Torts, Rights and Loss” on Watkins v Home Department (2006) 122 Law Quarterly Review 565
• “Vicarious Liability or Vicarious Action?” on Majrowski v Guy’s & St Thomas’s NHS Trust (2007) 123 Law Quarterly Review 30

Current Teaching
Undergraduate
Torts
Conflict of Laws

Graduate
International Trade Law
International and Comparative Secured Transactions
International Commercial Restitution

PhD Supervision
Professor Stevens has extensive experience of graduate supervision, and welcomes approaches from prospective students for supervision within any area of his competence

page updated on 19 January, 2012