Dr Sandy Steel wins Wedderburn Prize
Sandy Steel, Associate Professor of Law has won the Wedderburn Prize for his article, Justifying Exceptions to Proof of Causation in Tort Law, which was chosen as the contribution to the Modern Law Review from last year which is ‘exemplary of the type of scholarship it aims to promote’. Selected by the Review’s editorial committee, the prize was announced by Professor Conor Gearty (LSE) after the Chorley Lecture, given this year by John Gardner, Professor of Jurisprudence.
Justifying Exceptions to Proof of Causation in Tort Law defends a set of exceptions to the general rule in tort law that a claimant must prove that a particular defendant's wrongful conduct was a cause of its injury on the balance of probabilities in order to be entitled to compensatory damages in respect of that injury. The basic rationale for each exception is that it provides a means of enforcing the defendant's secondary moral duty to its victim. The article further demonstrates that the acceptance of this set of exceptions does not undermine the general rule.
Dr Sandy Steel joined Wadham in 2014, coming from King’s College London where he was a lecturer. He teaches tort, contract, jurisprudence, and BCL seminars on the philosophical foundations of the common law. His research interests are primarily in the law of obligations, particularly tort law, and particularly from philosophical and comparative law perspectives. His book, Proof of Causation in Tort Law (CUP) explores the English, French and German tort law on when people may be held liable to pay compensation for losses which they have not been proven to have caused.
The Wedderburn Prize is named in honour of Lord Wedderburn of Charlton, who served as General Editor of the Review from 1971 to 1988. It is awarded annually for a contribution to that year's volume which in the opinion of the Editorial Committee is exemplary of the type of scholarship that The Modern Law Review aims to promote. In awarding this Prize, the Committee pays particular attention to the work of authors who are at a relatively early stage of their careers.