James 
PENNER

 
Kwa Geok Choo Professor of Property Law

Co-Director, Centre for Legal Theory

Convenor, Private Law Discussion Group

James Penner took an honours BSc in Genetics at the University of Western Ontario in 1985, an LLB at the University of Toronto in 1988 and completed his DPhil at University College, Oxford in 1992. His thesis formed the basis of The Idea of Property in Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) which won the 1997 Society of Public Teachers of Law First Prize for Outstanding Scholarship by a Younger Scholar (now renamed the ‘SLS Peter Birks Prize’).

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Contact

(65) 6601-3460
TB-08-01L

Education

DPhil (University of Oxford); LLB (University of Toronto); BSc (University of Western Ontario); Barrister (Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn)

Curriculum Vitae

Current Courses

James Penner took an honours BSc in Genetics at the University of Western Ontario in 1985, an LLB at the University of Toronto in 1988 and completed his DPhil at University College, Oxford in 1992. His thesis formed the basis of The Idea of Property in Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) which won the 1997 Society of Public Teachers of Law First Prize for Outstanding Scholarship by a Younger Scholar (now renamed the ‘SLS Peter Birks Prize’).
Since 1992 he has taught law at Brunel University, the London School of Economics, King’s College London, and most recently from 2008 until 2013 as Professor of Property Law at the Faculty of Laws, University College London, serving from 2011 to 2013 as Head of Department. He has established himself as one of the world’s leading experts in the philosophy of property and the law of trusts, and writes more widely in the areas of private law and the philosophy of law. He has been a visiting professor in China, Canada, Belgium, and Australia.

Books
James E. Penner, The Law of Trusts (Contributor: Jeremiah Lau, 12th edn, Oxford University Press 2022)

James E. Penner, Property Rights: A Re-Examination (Oxford University Press 2020)

Edited Books
Mark McBride and James E Penner (eds), New Essays on the Nature of Legal Reasoning (Hart Publishing 2022)

Book Chapters
James E. Penner, 'Taking Raz Seriously: On the Value of Autonomy and its Relation to Private Law' in Paul B. Miller and John Oberdiek (eds), Oxford Studies in Private Law Theory: Volume II (Oxford University Press 2023) 79

James E. Penner, 'Hohfeld’s Equity' in Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Ted M. Sichelman and Henry E. Smith (eds), Wesley Hohfeld A Century Later: Edited Works, Select Personal Papers, and Original Commentaries (Cambridge University Press 2022) 295

James E. Penner, 'Working with a Body of Rules: On the Nature of Doctrinal Legal Disagreement in Judge-Made Law' in Mark McBride and James E Penner (eds), New Essays on the Nature of Legal Reasoning (Hart Publishing 2022) 175

James E. Penner, 'Punishments and Penalties in Private Law, with Particular Reference to the Law Governing Fiduciaries' in Elise Bant, Wayne Courtney, James Goudkamp and Jeannie Paterson (eds), Punishment and Private Law (Hart Publishing 2021)

James E. Penner, 'Justifying Private Law: 'Reasons Fundamentalist' Instrumentalism and the Kantian Account' in Simone Degeling, Michael Crawford, Nicholas Tiverios (ed), Justifying Private Rights (Bloomsbury Publishing 2021) 46

James E. Penner, 'Don’t Crash into Mick Jagger When He Is Driving His Rolls Royce: Liability in Damages for Economic Loss Consequent upon a Personal Injury' in Paul B. Miller and John Oberdiek (eds), Civil Wrongs and Justice in Private Law (Oxford University Press 2020) 253

James E. Penner, 'Equity, Justice, and Conscience: Suitors Behaving Badly?' in Dennis Klimchuk, Irit Samet, and Henry E. Smith (eds), Philosophical Foundations of the Law of Equity (Oxford University Press 2020) 52

James E. Penner, 'Trustees and Agents Behaving Badly' in Matthew Harding and Paul B. Miller (eds), Fiduciaries and Trust: Ethics, Politics, Economics and Law (Cambridge University Press 2020) 128

Journal Articles
James E. Penner, 'The 33rd Singapore Law Review Annual Lecture: Penalties, Not Punishments, In Private Law' (2023) 39 Singapore Law Review 1

James E. Penner, 'Property and Self-Determination' (2022) 35 (2) Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence 537

James E Penner, 'Justifying (or Not) the Office of Trusteeship With Particular Reference to Massively Discretionary Trusts' (2021) 34 (2) Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence 365

James E. Penner, 'Private Law Offices' (2020) 70 (S2) University of Toronto Law Journal 299

Jeremiah Lau, James E. Penner and Benjamin Wong, 'The Basics of Private and Public Data Trusts' [2020] Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 90

Representative Publications
James E. Penner, The Idea of Property in Law (Oxford University Press, 1997)

James E. Penner and Henry E Smith (eds), Philosophical Foundations of Property Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)

Robert Chambers, Charles Mitchell, and James E. Penner (eds), Philosophical Foundations of the Law of Unjust Enrichment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)


  • Law of Trusts
  • Law and Philosophy of Property
  • Philosophical Foundations of the Common Law
  • General Jurisprudence
  • Philosophy of Law