Professor Stephen Watterson

Stephen Watterson holds the position of Professor of Private Law in the Faculty of Law. He joined the Faculty of Law in 2012, having previously held the positions of Senior Lecturer in Law at the London School of Economics (2008-2012), Lecturer and later Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol (2002-2008), Lecturer in Law at St John's College, Oxford (2000-2001), and Research Assistant at the Law Commission of England and Wales (1996-1998). He studied law at Oxford (BA, 1993-1996; DPhil, 1998-2002). He is an Associate Director of the Cambridge Private Law Centre and an Academic Member of the Chancery Bar Association.

Stephen has wide-ranging teaching and research interests across the field of private law, but a particular interest in the law of unjust enrichment, land law, and banking/financial law (particularly payments law).

His first book, Subrogation: Law and Practice (OUP, 2007) (with Charles Mitchell), was shortlisted for the inaugural Inner Temple Book Prize 2008. In 2010, he became one of a new team of three authors that assumed responsibility for the authorship of Goff & Jones - The Law of Unjust Enrichment (Sweet & Maxwell, 8th ed, 2011; 9th ed, 2016; 10th edn, 2022) (with Charles Mitchell and Paul Mitchell). He has also recently edited three collections: The World of Maritime and Commercial Law (Hart, 2020) (with Charles Mitchell), New Perspectives on Land Registration - Contemporary Problems and Solutions (Hart, 2018) (with Amy Goymour and Martin Dixon), and The Global Futures of Unjust Enrichment, which has been published as the 25th anniversary volume of the Restitution Law Review, [2017] RLR.

Stephen was the Director of the Law Tripos from January 2020-October 2021. During that time, Stephen led a collaboration between the Faculty of Law and Cambridge University Press to design and develop a free, open-access online course, via the FutureLearn platform, Exploring Law: Studying Law at University. This six-module course is a major new outreach initiative, intended to help any school-aged student, regardless of background and particular university aspirations, get a taste of what it might be like studying Law at university, develop key understanding and skills, and gain confidence in deciding whether Law is the right subject for them. For more information about the course, see the Exploring Law page on the Faculty's website.

Stephen was awarded a University of Cambridge Pilkington Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2022.