Simon Whittaker
- Called to Bar:
- 1987
- Practice areas:
- Degrees:
- BCL (Oxon), MA (Oxon), D Phil (Oxon), DCL (Oxon)
- Languages:
-
French (fluent)
Simon joined Blackstone Chambers as a member in October 2009 on completion of his pupillage there.
Professional Experience
Professor Simon Whittaker has been Fellow and Tutor in Law at St. John’s College, Oxford since 1987; he was Lecturer in Law and, since 2006, has been Professor of European Comparative Law at the University of Oxford. Formerly, he was Lecturer in Laws at King’s College London (1982-1987). He has been visiting professor at the Universities of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris II Panthéon-Assas and has addressed conferences in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Simon is one of the main editors of Chitty on Contracts and has written widely on contract law and the law of torts, having particular interests in legislation implementing EC directives in these areas and in the relationship of contract to public law. His work for Chitty has been cited by the courts, most recently by the Court of Appeal in the ‘Bank Charges Case’, Abbey National PLC v The Office of Fair Trading [2009] EWCA Civ 116. He has also written on the French law of obligations and has collaborated with continental university colleagues on comparative law projects, for example, as to the significance of good faith in European contract law.
Commercial
Simon will combine practice with his continuing academic work at the University of Oxford. He can advise on commercial law including EC instruments in contract law.
As a pupil, he had experience of a wide range of work in Chambers (commercial, regulatory and public) and saw a number of courts and tribunals, including the High Court and the Privy Council. He assisted Andrew George in advising on several contractual disputes and regulatory matters; he assisted Javan Herberg in relation to a dispute in relation to public contracting in National Transport Co-operative Society Limited v. Attorney-General of Jamaica before the Privy Council, and Dinah Rose Q.C., Javan Herberg and Jessica Boyd in relation to Equitable Life Members’ Action Group v HM Treasury (2009) EWHC 2495 Admin.
Other relevant experience
Appointments:
In May 2010 Simon was appointed to the newly created European Commission’s legal expert group, which is to seek solutions on contract law. The European Commission, seeking to boost cross-border trade and to ensure strong rights for consumers, convened this expert group to propose ways to improve contract law in the European Union. It consists of 18 contract law experts, lawyers and consumer representatives. The task of the group is to prepare a text on contract law "from pre-contractual duties and the formation of a contract to remedies for the breach of a contract and the consequences of termination." It is to be used to improve coherence in EU contract law and may provide "an optional European contract law (or "28th system")".
Before entering practice, he acted as consultant to the UK government in 2008/2009 for the Ministry of Justice in relation to the EC contract law initiative called the ‘Draft Common Frame of Reference’, his report on which is published at http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/eu-contract-law-common-frame-reference.htm.
Memberships:
Simon is an elected member of the American Law Institute, associate member of the International Academic of Comparative Law and member of the editorial or advisory boards of the European Review of Private Law (the Netherlands), Revue internationale de droit comparé (Paris) and Revista de derecho privado (Madrid).
Publications
Books:
- H. Beale (gen. ed.) Chitty on Contracts (26th edn. of 1989 –30th edn. of 2008) (Sweet and Maxwell), chaps. 1 Introductory; 4 Form; 8 Capacity; 15 Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts; 44 Suretyship.
- Liability for Products: English Law, French Law and European Harmonisation (Oxford University Press, 2005) (687 pp.).
- J. Bell, S. Boyron and S. Whittaker, Principles of French Law (Oxford University Press, 1st edn. (1998), 2nd edn. (2008) esp. at pp. 304-430.
- R. Zimmermann and S. Whittaker (eds.), Good Faith in European Contract Law (Cambridge University Press, 2000) (701 pp.)
- J. Cartwright, S. Vogenauer and S. Whittaker (eds.) Reforming the French Law of Obligations (Richard Hart, 2009) (915 pp.)
- S. Whittaker (ed.) The Development of Product Liability (Cambridge University Press, 2009, forthcoming).
Articles (select):
- ‘A Framework of Principle for European Contract Law?’ (2009) 125 Law Quarterly Review 616- 647.
- ‘Unfair Terms and Consumer Guarantees: the Proposal for a Directive on Consumer Rights and the Significance of “Full Harmonisation” ’ (2009) European Review of Contract Law 2-25.
- ‘Burden of Proof in the Consumer Acquis and in the Draft Common Frame of Reference: Law, Fact and Things in Between’ (2008) European Review of Contract Law 411 – 444.
- ‘Form and Substance in the Reception of EC Directives into English Contract Law’ (2007) European Review of Contract Law 381-409.
- ‘The Interpretation of Concepts in European Private Law’ in K. Boele-Woelki W. Grosheide (eds.) The Future of European Contract Law, Essays in Honour of Ewoud Hondius (Walters, Kluwer, 2007) 333-345.
- ‘Termination Clauses’ in A. Burrows and E. Peel (eds.) Contract Terms (OUP, Oxford, 2007) 253-84.
- ‘Can the Contract Control the Contract? ‘Entire Agreement Clauses in English Law’ in F. Addis and C. Amato (eds.) Le Clausole di Formanelle Condizioni Generali di Contratto (Univ. Brescia, 2008) 179 – 209.
- ‘The Relationship of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive to European and National Contract Laws’ in S. Weatherill and U. Bernitz (eds), The Regulation of Unfair Commercial Practices under EC Directive 2005/29: New Rules and New Techniques (Hart Publishing, 2006) 139-158.
- ‘The Language or Languages of Consumer Contracts’ in (2006) 8 Cambridge Yearbook of European Studies (2005-2006) chap. 10, 230-57.
- ‘On the Development of European Standard Contract Terms’ in H. Collins (ed) Standard Contract Terms in Europe, A Basis for and a Challenge to European Contract Law (Wolters Kluwer, 2008).
- ‘Consumer Law and the Distinction between Public and Private Law’ in J.-B. Auby and M. Freedland (eds), The Public Law/Private Law Divide: une entente assez cordiale (Richard Hart, Oxford (2006).
- ‘Assessing the fairness of contract terms: the parties’ “essential bargain,” its regulatory context and the significance of the requirement of good faith’ Zeitschrift für Europäisches Privatrecht (2004) 75-98.
- ‘The Reformulation of Contractual Formality’ in P. Birks and A. Pretto (eds) Themes in Comparative Law in Honour of Bernard Rudden (Oxford, 2002), 199-217
- ‘Judicial Review in Public Law and in Contract Law: the example of ‘student rules’ (2001) 21 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 193-217.
- ‘Public and Private Law-making : Subordinate Legislation, Contracts and the Status of ‘Student Rules’ (2001) 21 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 103-128.
- ‘Reciprocity beyond Privity’ in Peter Kincaid (ed), Privity, Private Justice or Public Regulation (Ashgate, 2001) 259-283
- ‘Unfair Contract Terms, Public Services and the Construction of a European Conception of Contract’ (2000) 116 Law Quarterly Review 95-120
- ‘The application of the ‘broad principle of Hedley Byrne’ as between parties to a contract’ (1997) 17 Legal Studies 169-191
- ‘Privity of Contract and the Tort of Negligence: Future Directions’ (1996) 16 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 191-230
- ‘European Product Liability and Intellectual Products’ (1989) 105 Law Quarterly Review 125-139
- ‘The EEC Directive on Product Liability’ 1985 Yearbook of European Law 232-279.
