Biography
Sandy Steel is Professor of Law and Philosophy of Law in the Faculty of Law at Oxford, Dr Lee Shau Kee's Sir Man Kam Lo Fellow in Law at Wadham College, Visiting Research Professor at Hong Kong University, and Global Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School (London).
At Oxford he’s taught Tort, Contract, Commercial Remedies, Jurisprudence, Philosophical Foundations of the Common Law, and Comparative Law, and has supervised several DPhils across these areas.
His main interest is in philosophical and doctrinal questions about foundational matters of private law in common law and civilian jurisdictions. Alongside this, he maintains an interest in general jurisprudence and has co-authored (with Nick McBride) a critical guide to the subject: Great Debates in Jurisprudence (Palgrave, 2014, 2nd edn 2018; forthcoming in a Chinese translation). His books include Proof of Causation in Tort Law (CUP 2015) and Omissions in Tort Law (OUP 2024). He's currently working on a book about public officials and authorities across private law for which he was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship from 2024-2027.
His work on various topics has been cited by courts across the common law, including the UK Supreme Court, the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of Canada, and the New Zealand Court of Appeal, and he has acted as a consultant on litigation concerning causation and duties of care for omissions. He has held visiting positions at NYU, Hong Kong University, the National University of Singapore, the WWU Muenster, Tel Aviv University, and Singapore Management University. He serves as an Advisor to the American Law Institute’s Principles of Civil Liability for Artificial Intelligence project.
Some draft papers are available here: https://sandysteel.weebly.com/drafts.html and https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1703436
Other drafts:
1. 'Assumptions of Responsibility' (Reader's Lecture delivered at the Inner Temple)
2. 'Reasonable Mistakes about Rights'
3. Draft book chapters on public officials and authorities in private law.
4. Foundations of Remedies.
5. 'What is a Private Law Duty?'
6. 'The Nature and Role of Private Law Rights'
7. 'Causation by Degree in Law'
PUBLICATIONS:
Books:
S Steel, Omissions in Tort Law (Oxford University Press, 2024).
S Steel, Proof of Causation in Tort Law (Cambridge University Press, 2015; paperback edition, 2017).
NJ McBride and S Steel, Great Debates in Jurisprudence (Palgrave, 2014), 2nd edn (2018).
N Jansen, translated from German by S Steel, The Structure of Tort Law (Oxford University Press, 2021).
K Burns, J Gardner, J Morgan, S Steel (eds), Torts on Three Continents: Honouring Jane Stapleton (Oxford University Press, 2024).
H Psarras and S Steel (eds) Private Law and Practical Reason: Essays on John Gardner's Philosophy of Private Law (Oxford University Press, 2023).
Selected journal articles:
S. Steel and S. Williams, "Constructing counterfactuals in private law: the preclusionary rule" (2026 or 2027) Law Quarterly Review (forthcoming)
S. Steel, "Compensation for permissible harm" (2026) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies
S. Steel, "The grounds of compensatory duties" (2026) Law Ethics Philosophy (forthcoming, symposium contribution)
S. Steel, "Liability and fault in Reasonableness and Risk" (2025) 45 Law and Philosophy 139
S. Steel, "Public authority liability for failure to prevent harm" (2024) 16 Journal of Tort Law 333
S. Steel, “Justifying civil recourse for wrongs” (2023) 27 Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies 1
S. Steel, “Damages without loss” (2023) 139 Law Quarterly Review 219
T. Khaitan and S. Steel, “Theorising areas of law” (2022) 28 Legal Theory 325 (open access)
T. Khaitan and S. Steel, “Areas of law: three questions in special jurisprudence” (2022) 43 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 76 (open access)
S. Steel, “On the moral necessity of tort law: the fairness argument” (2021) 41 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 192
S. Steel, “Compensation and continuity” (2020) 26 Legal Theory 250
S. Steel, “Remedies, analysed” (2020) 41 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 539
S. Steel and R. Stevens, “The secondary legal duty to pay damages” (2020) 136 Law Quarterly Review 283
S. Steel, “Rationalising omissions liability in negligence” (2019) 135 Law Quarterly Review 484
S. Steel, “The locality principle in private nuisance” (2017) 76 Cambridge Law Journal 145
S. Steel, “Saving private wrongs” (2016) 14 Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies 1 – 21 (with a response by Arthur Ripstein in the same issue).
S. Tofaris and S. Steel, “Negligence liability for omissions and the police” (2016) 75 Cambridge Law Journal 128
S. Steel, “Justifying exceptions to proof of causation” (2015) 78 Modern Law Review 729 (winner of the MLR's Wedderburn Prize, translated into Spanish here: https://www.sitios.scjn.gob.mx/cec/sites/default/files/publication/documents/2021-11/LIBRO-DERECHO-DE-DANOS.pdf
S. Steel, “Private law and justice” (2013) 33 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 607 - 628.
N.J. McBride and S. Steel, “Suing for the loss of the right to sue” (2012) 28 Professional Negligence 27
S. Steel, “Causation in English tort law: still wrong after all these years” (2012) 31 University of Queensland Law Journal 243
S. Steel, “Exceptional doctrines of natural causation: Sienkiewicz v Greif” (2011) 2 Journal of European Tort Law 294
S. Steel and D.J. Ibbetson, “More grief on uncertain causation in tort” (2011) 70 Cambridge Law Journal 451
Book chapters:
M. Geisteld and S. Steel, "Causation and climate change in tort" in D Kysar and E Lim (eds) Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Private Law (forthcoming)
A. Georgiou and S. Steel, "Remedies and the public interest" in A Robertson and J Neyers (eds.) Private Law and the State (Bloomsbury, 2024)
S. Steel, “Liability beyond necessity” in K Burns et al (eds), Torts on Three Continents: Essays in Honour of Jane Stapleton (OUP 2024)
S. Steel, “Liability and distributive justice” in N Stavropoulos and A Ryu (eds) Interpretivism and Its Critics (forthcoming)
S. Steel, “Legal causation and AI” in E Lim and P Morgan (eds) Cambridge handbook on artificial intelligence and private law (CUP, 2024)
S. Steel, “Defensive and remedial liability” J Oberdiek and P Miller (eds), Oxford Studies in Private Law Theory: Vol II (OUP, 2023)
S. Steel, “Deterrence in private law” in H Psarras and S Steel (eds) Private law and practical reason (OUP, 2023)
S. Steel, “Justifying state remedial duties” in S Besson (ed) Theorising International State Responsibility Law (CUP, 2022)
S. Steel, “Culpability and compensatory liability” in (ed) J. Goudkamp, M. Lunney, Taking Law Seriously (Hart Publishing, 2021)
S. Steel, “Defences to liability in French tort and contract law” in J.S. Borghetti and S. Whittaker (eds), French civil liability in comparative perspective (Hart, 2019) approx. 10,000 words)
S. Steel, “Cause and courts”, in P. Daly (ed), Apex courts in the common law (University of Toronto Press, 2019) 342 - 365
T. Khaitan and S. Steel, “Wrongs, group disadvantage, and the legitimacy of indirect discrimination” in H Collins and T Khaitan (eds), The foundations of indirect discrimination law (Hart, 2018) 197 – 221
M. Dyson and S. Steel, “Risk in English Private Law” in M. Dyson (ed) Regulating risk (Intersentia, 2018)
Chapters on “Causation”, “Capacity”, “Malicious Prosecution” and “Joint and Several Liability” in K Oliphant (ed), Butterworths common law series: tort (2014)
S. Steel, “Causation in tort and crime: unity or divergence?” in M Dyson (ed), Unravelling tort and crime (CUP, 2014) 239 - 274
S. Steel, “Rationalising loss of a chance in tort” in S Pitel, J Neyers, E Chamberlain (eds), Challenging orthodoxy in tort law (Hart, 2013)
Case notes:
S. Steel, "Interfering with assistance and duties of care" (2025) 141 LQR 336
S. Steel, “Material contribution, again” (2022) 138 LQR 545
S. Steel, “The gist of private nuisance” (2019) 135 LQR 192
J. Stapleton and S. Steel, “Causes and contributions” (2016) 132 LQR 363
S. Steel, “On when Fairchild applies” (2015) 131 LQR 363
S. Steel, “Defining causal counterfactuals in negligence” (2014) 130 LQR 564
N.J. McBride and S. Steel, “The trigger litigation” (2012) 28 Professional Negligence 285
S. Steel, “False imprisonment and the fetch of hypothetical warrant” (2011) 127 LQR 527
S. Steel, “Uncertainty over causal uncertainty” (2010) 73 MLR 646