Phillip Morgan

Profile

Biography

MA (Cantab.), BCL (Oxon.), PhD (UCL), FRSA, Barrister

Chair of Private Law

I teach and research tort, contract, and commercial law. Within the law of tort I am particularly interested in vicarious liability, volunteers, comparative tort law, artificial intelligence, and “tort reform”. I am the editor of two books: The Cambridge Handbook of Private Law and Artificial Intelligence (Cambridge University Press), (with Ernest Lim), and Tort Liability and Autonomous Systems Accidents, (Edward Elgar). I have published in the Cambridge Law Journal, Modern Law Review, Law Quarterly Review, Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, Legal Studies, the Journal of Professional Negligence, and the Torts Law Journal, amongst others.

My academic work has been used in argument before the UK Supreme Court, cited with approval by the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of Ireland, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the High Court in Malaysia, and also by government bodies and reports in the UK, Switzerland, and Australia, including the Law Commission. I have worked, and/or am currently working on a number of major projects, funded by the European Research Council, Medical Protection Society, EPSRC, and AHRC. I am also the Law Lead on York’s £8 million multidisciplinary doctoral training centre on Safe AI ("SAINTS").

I am the Book Review and Review Article Editor of the Journal of Professional Negligence, and an Editor of the Professional Negligence and Liability Reports. I was formerly the Torts Subject Section Convenor for the Society of Legal Scholars.

Prior to joining York I taught at Southampton, and Girton College, Cambridge. I have been the Robert S Campbell Visiting Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, a Visiting Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, a Visiting Associate Professor, and also a Sino-British Trust Fellow at the University of Hong Kong, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, a Visiting Scholar of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, a Visitor at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, and the Cambridge Private Law Centre, a Visiting Scholar of St John’s College, Oxford, as well as a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University Law Center.

I read law at Girton College, Cambridge, (Starred First and Top of Law Tripos Part IB), Christ Church, Oxford, (BCL (Distinction)), University College London, (PhD), and the College of Law, (BVC (Outstanding)), winning 18 University, College, and Inn scholarships and prizes. I was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple (First in Seniority, Trinity 2007)

I am also a Barrister. I completed pupillage at Essex Court Chambers, (Commercial / Shipping / Civil Fraud / International Trade / Arbitration), where I mainly worked on large Commercial Court and Arbitral Tribunal cases, before moving to Crown Office Chambers, (Insurance / Personal Injury / Clinical Negligence / Construction), where I regularly appeared in trials and applications in the County Courts. I also appeared in the High Court, Companies Court, and in the Coroner’s Court. I have also been Judicial Assistant to Lord Judge, The Lord Chief Justice, and also to Lord Carnwath, Justice of the Supreme Court, (then Senior President of Tribunals).

I also sit as a part time judge. I am a Fee-Paid Judge of the Employment Tribunal of England and Wales, and a Fee-Paid Judge of the First-tier Tribunal, assigned to the Social Entitlement Chamber.

I am a Council Member of the Society of Legal Scholars, and a Member of the Society’s Library Sub-Committee.

I have supervised, (or supervise) PhD projects on efficient breach in commercial contract law, liability within the gig economy, the role of subsequent conduct within the interpretation of contracts, liability and the Manosphere, AI and open banking regulations, persuasive technology and contract law, and robo-journalism and defamation.  My former PhD students hold academic appointments (including at York), or are in legal practice.  I am always interested in hearing from potential research students wishing to undertake PhD studies at York Law School in my fields of specialism. I have externally examined PhD theses both in the UK and abroad, and I am also always happy to externally examine PhD theses within my research interests.

Research

Overview

• Obligations
• Commercial law
• AI Law

Projects

• Vicarious Liability

An examination of the changing nature of occupation and non-economic actors, sited in the context of the policy and theory of tort and vicarious liability. This ongoing project has led to various publications which have been cited with approval in a number of leading cases including: JGE v. The Trustees of the Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust [2012] EWCA Civ 938, [2013] Q.B. 722; Allen & Ors v. The Chief Constable of the Hampshire Constabulary [2013] EWCA Civ 967; Prince Alfred College Inc v. ADC [2016] HCA 37, (2016) 258 CLR 134; Hickey v. McGowan & ors [2017] IESC 6, [2017] 1 I.L.R.M. 293; Fanuc SDN BHD v Adenland (Cheras) SDN BHD & Anor [2019] MLJU 537; and CCIG Investments Pty Ltd v Schokman [2023] HCA 21.

• Responsibility for AI

This is an overlapping theme for a number of related AI projects, involving close collaboration with other academic disciplines and industry partners. These projects have led to two edited collections, along with a series of multidisciplinary articles published in scientific journals.

• Tort Law and the Voluntary Sector

This is a historic and comparative common law study examining the interface between tort law and volunteers.

Publications

Selected publications

Books

• The Cambridge Handbook of Private Law and Artificial Intelligence (Cambridge University Press, 2024), (with Ernest Lim), (Co-Editor),
• Tort Liability and Autonomous System Accidents: Common Law and Civil Law Perspectives (Edward Elgar, 2023), (Editor),

Articles and Chapters

• ‘Introducing Private Law and Artificial Intelligence’, Introduction in Ernest Lim and Phillip Morgan (Eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Private Law and Artificial Intelligence (Cambridge University Press, 2024), (forthcoming), (with Ernest Lim),
• ‘Tort Law and AI – Vicarious Liability’, Chapter 6 in Ernest Lim and Phillip Morgan (Eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Private Law and Artificial Intelligence (Cambridge University Press, 2024), (forthcoming),
• ‘Tort Liability and Autonomous System Accidents – Challenges and Future Developments’, Chapter 1 in Phillip Morgan (Ed), Tort Liability and Autonomous System Accidents: Common Law and Civil Law Perspectives (Edward Elgar, 2023), 1-26,
• ‘Distinguishing Two Features of Accountability for AI technologies’, (2022) 4 Nature Machine Intelligence 734–736, (with Zoe Porter, Annette Zimmermann, John McDermid, Tom Lawton, and Ibrahim Habli),
• ‘Justifying Global Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims in the Modern Business Environment’, [2021] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 306-329, (with Amalia Tzima),
• ‘Vicarious Punishment: Vicarious Liability for Exemplary Damages’, Chapter 11 in Elise Bant, James Goudkamp, Jeannie Paterson, and Wayne Courtney (Eds), Punishment and Private Law (Hart Publishing, 2021), 287-318,
• ‘Judgment-Proofing Voluntary Sector Organisations from Liability in Tort’, (2020) 6 Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law 220-259,
• ‘Mind the Gaps: Assuring the Safety of Autonomous Systems from an Engineering, Ethical, and Legal Perspective’, (2020) 279 Artificial Intelligence 103201, 1-16, (with Simon Burton, Ibrahim Habli, Tom Lawton, John McDermid, and Zoe Porter),
• ‘Review of Legal Frameworks, Standards and Best Practices in Verification and Assurance for Infrastructure Inspection Robotics’ (RIMA, 2020), (pp 151), (with Youcef Gheraibia, Bob Kao, Rob Alexander, and Liam Kilvington),
• ‘Vicarious Liability and the Beautiful Game - Liability for Professional and Amateur Footballers?’, (2018) 38(2) Legal Studies 242-262,
• ‘Certainty in Vicarious Liability: A Quest for A Chimaera?’, (2016) 75(2) Cambridge Law Journal 202-205,
• ‘Fostering, Vicarious Liability, Non-Delegable Duties, and Intentional Torts’, (2016) 132 Law Quarterly Review 399-404,
• ‘Vicarious Liability for Group Companies: The Final Frontier of Vicarious Liability?’, (2015) 31(4) Journal of Professional Negligence 276-299,
• ‘Close Connection and Police Torts’, (2013) 29(4) Journal of Professional Negligence 233-237,
• ‘Vicarious Liability on the Move’, (2013) 129 Law Quarterly Review 139-144,
• ‘Ripe for Reconsideration: Foster Carers, Context, and Vicarious Liability’, (2012) 20(2) Torts Law Journal 110-144,
• ‘Recasting Vicarious Liability’, (2012) 71(3) Cambridge Law Journal 615-650,
• ‘Doublethink and District Judges – High Court Precedent in the County Court’, (2012) 32(3) Legal Studies 421-447,
• ‘Revising Vicarious Liability: A Commercial Perspective’, [2012] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 175-180,
• ‘No place to hide’, (2012) 162(7503) New Law Journal 313,
• ‘Distorting Vicarious Liability’, (2011) 74(6) Modern Law Review 932-946,
• ‘Vicarious Liability for Employee Theft: Muddling Vicarious Liability for Conversion with Non-Delegable Duties’, [2011] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 172-178,
• ‘Conflicts between Jurisdiction and Procedure: Pre-Action Civil Procedure and Jurisdiction - a Poor Fit’, [2011] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 275-292,
• Book Review: ‘The Tort of Conversion, by Sarah Green and John Randall QC’, (2010) 30(3) Legal Studies 494-498,
• 'Battle of the Forms: Restating the Orthodox’, (2010) 69(2) Cambridge Law Journal 230-232,
• ‘Bank Charges and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999: The End of the Road for Consumers?’, [2010] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 208-215,
• ‘Mitigation and Conversion’, [2010] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 220-226,
• ‘The Province of OBG v. Allan Determined: The Economic Torts Return to the House of Lords’, (2009) 20 King’s Law Journal 338-346, (with James Lee),
• ‘Unilateral Deployment of Armed Force for the Protection of Human Rights’, (2007) 5 Journal of International Law & Policy, (University of Pennsylvania), 7:1-7:7,

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Obligations

Postgraduate

• Law and Commercial Transactions (LLM) (Module Convenor)
• Dissertations (LLB/LLM)
• AI Law (CDT)
• PhD (Supervision)

External activities

Memberships

• Council Member of the Society of Legal Scholars
• Middle Temple
• Royal Society of Arts