Rory Gregson

DPhil Law

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Biography

In October 2021, Dr Rory Gregson will take up a Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

RESEARCH

Rory has publications in the Law Quarterly Review, Public Law, and the Research Handbook on Unjust Enrichment and Restitution.

Rory's DPhil was awarded in July 2021.  It investigates subrogation, which allows one person to pretend to be another and rely on the latter's rights against a third party.  This is as strange as it sounds and subrogation often causes controversy in the courts.  For example, the question of whether subrogation is a remedy for unjust enrichment has divided the UK Supreme Court in four decisions in the last six years.  Rory's DPhil asks why and when subrogation happens.  In particular, it interrogates the orthodox view that subrogation to extinguished rights is a remedy for unjust enrichment.

TEACHING

Rory teaches across private law.  At undergraduate level, he teaches Contract, Land, Torts, and Trusts.  At the Law Faculty, he delivers lectures in Contract.  At postgraduate level, Rory teaches Commercial Remedies and Restitution of Unjust Enrichment.

ADMINISTRATION AND OUTREACH

Rory is the Law Faculty's Opportunity Oxford Co-ordinator.  Opportunity Oxford is the University's new flagship access programme for students from backgrounds which are under-represented in Oxford.  It takes place before the students’ first term in Oxford and builds the skills that they will need in their law degree.  Rory has been responsible for delivering the first two years of this brand-new course.

As the maintainer of the OSCOLA LaTeX template, Rory updates the code and assists the growing number of users from around the world.

EDUCATION

2021 DPhil, Balliol College, University of Oxford
Supervised by Prof Robert Stevens
Fully funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council

2018 MPhil, Balliol College, University of Oxford
Co-supervised by Prof Robert Stevens and Dr Frederick Wilmot-Smith
Fully funded by Clarendon Scholarship

2017 BCL (Distinction), Wadham College, University of Oxford
Peter Carter Taught Graduate Scholarship in Law
Keeley Senior Scholarship, Wadham College

2016 BA Law, Christ's College, University of Cambridge
Graduated top of a cohort of 222 students with a Starred First
Slaughter and May Prize for best overall performance in Part II of the Law Tripos

Publications

Recent additions

  • Rory Gregson, 'Building Unexpectedly Accedes to Land' (2021) 80 Cambridge Law Journal 449 [Case Note]
    DOI: 10.1017/S0008197321000969
    Note on School Facility Management Ltd v Christ the King College [2021] EWCA Civ 1053
  • Mindy Chen-Wishart and Rory Gregson, 'Impaired Intention Unjust Factors?' in Elise Bant, Kit Barker, and Simone Degeling (eds), Research Handbook on Unjust Enrichment and Restitution (Edward Elgar Publishing 2020)
  • Rory Gregson, 'Is Subrogation a Remedy for Unjust Enrichment?' (2020) 136 Law Quarterly Review 481
    D owes a debt to X. C’s money is paid to X, discharging D’s debt. In these circumstances, the law might give C new rights against D, which resemble X’s extinguished rights against D. This is called subrogation to extinguished rights, which this article calls “subrogation” for short. Subrogation is a strange thing for the law to do. C might deserve rights against D, but why should these rights resemble X’s extinguished rights? English law says that subrogation is a remedy for unjust enrichment. However, some commentators dissent from this view and, in the past four years, the UK Supreme Court has started to reconsider this position. This article argues that subrogation is not a remedy for unjust enrichment in the sense that is usually assumed, since it is not governed by the same rules as other remedies for unjust enrichment. In light of this, judges and scholars need to reconsider what the law of unjust enrichment is, and how it is unified.

All publications

Case Note (1)

Rory Gregson, 'Building Unexpectedly Accedes to Land' (2021) 80 Cambridge Law Journal 449 [Case Note]
DOI: 10.1017/S0008197321000969
Note on School Facility Management Ltd v Christ the King College [2021] EWCA Civ 1053

Journal Article (2)

Rory Gregson, 'Is Subrogation a Remedy for Unjust Enrichment?' (2020) 136 Law Quarterly Review 481
D owes a debt to X. C’s money is paid to X, discharging D’s debt. In these circumstances, the law might give C new rights against D, which resemble X’s extinguished rights against D. This is called subrogation to extinguished rights, which this article calls “subrogation” for short. Subrogation is a strange thing for the law to do. C might deserve rights against D, but why should these rights resemble X’s extinguished rights? English law says that subrogation is a remedy for unjust enrichment. However, some commentators dissent from this view and, in the past four years, the UK Supreme Court has started to reconsider this position. This article argues that subrogation is not a remedy for unjust enrichment in the sense that is usually assumed, since it is not governed by the same rules as other remedies for unjust enrichment. In light of this, judges and scholars need to reconsider what the law of unjust enrichment is, and how it is unified.
Rory Gregson, 'When Should there be an Implied Power to Delegate?' [2017] Public Law 408
Many statutes confer discretionary powers upon public officials and authorities. Take any one of those powers. Must the official or authority exercise the power personally, or can the official or authority delegate the exercise of the power to a subordinate? For some powers, the statute will expressly answer this question. But what if the statute is silent? When should the courts find that the statute gives the official or authority an implied power to delegate? This article addresses that question in two parts. The first asks whether it is ever appropriate for a court to imply a power to delegate. The second asks, if so, in what circumstances? It is concluded that the courts do - and should - find that some statutes contain an implied power to delegate. The article then offers a detailed test to determine when they should do so.

Chapter (1)

Mindy Chen-Wishart and Rory Gregson, 'Impaired Intention Unjust Factors?' in Elise Bant, Kit Barker, and Simone Degeling (eds), Research Handbook on Unjust Enrichment and Restitution (Edward Elgar Publishing 2020)

Research projects

Research programmes

Research Interests

Private law, remedies, commercial law, administrative law.

Options taught

Contract, Land Law, Tort, Trusts, Commercial Remedies, Restitution of Unjust Enrichment

Research projects