PS Atiyah
An Academic Autobiography
PS Atiyah
Edited by James Goudkamp
An autobiography written by one of the world’s foremost legal scholars of the twentieth century
- Written in a highly readable, accessible and engaging style
- Describes Atiyah’s life and work
- Offers insights regarding the production of Atiyah’s books, several of which are among the most important works of the twentieth century regarding contract law and tort law
- Compares and contrasts the legal tradition in Britain with that in the United States
- Addresses the state of the legal academy and the nature of legal scholarship in the twentieth century
PS Atiyah (1931–2018) was one of the world’s great legal scholars of the twentieth century and formerly Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford. He made immense contributions to, in particular, the law of contract and the law of torts.
Atiyah’s principal works include The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract, The Sale of Goods, An Introduction to the Law of Contract, Pragmatism and Theory in English Law, The Damages Lottery, Form and Substance in Anglo-American Law and Accidents, Compensation and the Law.
His work is of enduring relevance. His autobiography sheds light on his research and on the state of the academy in the second half of the previous century.
Foreword
Editor's Preface
1. My Family
2. Childhood
3. Schooldays and Holidays
4. Post-War England
5. Back to Khartoum
6. Interlude in Ghana
7. Back in England
8. Excitement at the Board of Trade
9. Back in Oxford
10. Australian Interlude
11. Warwick University
12. Oxford Again
13. America
14. Winding Down
PS Atiyah’s Published Works
Atiyah Family Tree
This is not only a personal account of the peripatetic and often conflict-filled career of an outstanding academic lawyer of the twentieth century, who spanned the globe from Africa and Australia to Britain and the USA; it also paints a vivid picture of a multi-cultural wartime upbringing in Khartoum, Beirut and England, amidst an extraordinary family.
This volume is a rare gift: a page-turning memoir from one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century common law. We hear from both the brilliant, original, iconoclastic lawyer, and the outsider, the humane individual whose experiences in Africa, the UK, the US and Australia formed an extraordinary and inspirational life.
