Dr Duncan Fairgrieve

DR. DUNCAN FAIRGRIEVE

Duncan Fairgrieve is Fellow in Comparative Law and Director of the Tort Law Centre at the Institute. He is also Maître de Conférences at Sciences Po, Paris. He holds degrees from Oxford, London and Paris.

Dr Fairgrieve's research interests focus upon comparative law, spanning both private and public law. In the sphere of public law, he has a particular interest in the liability of public authorities in tort law. He published a monograph on public authority liability in 2003, which examines the topical sphere of governmental liability from a comparative perspective, arguing that there has been an important shift in the traditional English law approach under the influence of European human rights law and Community law: State Liability in Tort (Oxford University Press Oxford 2003). He also has an interest in the comparison of Anglo-French public law, and has recently completed a major publication with two judges from the French Supreme Administrative Court, the Conseil d'Etat, Monsieur le Président Bernard Stirn and Mattias Guyomar. The book is entitled Droits et Libertés en France et au Royaume-Uni and is published by Odile Jacob. The co-authors were awarded for this book the prestigious Henri Texier Prize by the French Academy in November 2006.

Recently Duncan Fairgrieve has produced a BIICL-published book in 2006 entitled Accountability, Independence and the Judiciary, with the then Lord Chief Justice of France, Guy Canivet, and Professor Mads Andenas.

In the sphere of comparative private law, Dr Fairgrieve works on a variety of topics, in particular tort law and product liability. He is the founding Director of the Tort Law Centre at the Institute and is responsible for projects on product liability, clinical negligence, and public authority liability.

In the sphere of product liability, Dr Fairgrieve has edited a leading analysis of the comparative law of product liability: Product Liability in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2005). He has also recently co-authored a book entitled Common Law et tradition civiliste - Convergence ou concurrence? published in pocket format in 2006 by French publishers, Presses Universitaires de France. The publication examines the architecture, institutions and socio-legal context of the common law and civil law systems, as exemplified by France and England.

Dr Fairgrieve's work has been cited by the courts, including judges of the Court of Appeal and House of Lords as well as Commissaire du Gouvernement Seban before the French Conseil d'Etat. Dr Fairgrieve is a qualified French avocat and practises in the field of civil and commercial litigation in Paris. He is a door tenant at One Crown Office Row.

Contact Dr Duncan Fairgrieve.