Professor Catharine MacMillan: Do People Matter? The importance of the individual in the construction of legal history

The Dickson Poon School of Law is proud to present our Inaugural Lecture Series. Inaugural Lectures are a celebration of our Professors, as they present an overview of their contribution to their field, as well as highlight its latest developments. The lecture is open to both members of the university community and the wider public, and is followed by a reception in the Great Hall.

Do People Matter? The importance of the individual in the construction of legal history

Carlyle observed that ‘History is the essence of innumerable Biographies’. Nowhere is this more true than in the legal history of the common law. Individuals have a powerful effect on legal change, continuity and the direction of the common law. This lecture examines a number of legal lives – some familiar, others obscure - to examine the role of legal biography in legal history.

Catharine MacMillan joined King’s College London as a Professor of Private Law in 2016. She was previously Professor of Law and Legal History at the University of Reading and a Reader in Legal History at Queen Mary, University of London. Her research is concerned with the nineteenth and twentieth century development of private law in England and the British Empire. Her historical analysis has laid the basis for further research and publications concerned with contemporary contractual doctrines and applications. She is a past President of the Society of Legal Scholars, Treasurer of the Selden Society and a Senior Associate Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies.