Peter A Allard School of Law

Samuel Beswick

Assistant Professor
LLM, SJD (Harvard), LLB(Hons), BCom (Auckland), Admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand

Profile


Assistant Professor Samuel Beswick is a private law scholar with primary research interests in the areas of torts, unjust enrichment, limitations, and remedies. His current research concerns the temporal scope of judicial changes in the law, as well as the rule of law in public authority civil liability. Dr. Beswick has published his research in leading common law journals, and has presented at workshops and conferences across North America and in the United Kingdom. He is the editor of the open-access casebook, Tort Law: Cases and Commentaries (2021 CanLIIDocs 1859). He has held teaching positions at Harvard Law School, King’s College London, and the University of Auckland.

Dr. Beswick is a Green College Member of Common Room and former Leading Scholar. He studied at Harvard as a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow and a Peter Brooks Saltonstall Memorial Scholar. He wrote his dissertation under Professor John C.P. Goldberg and received the Irving Oberman Memorial Prize in Constitutional Law. His thesis was favourably cited in a 2020 judgment of the United Kingdom Supreme Court. Dr. Beswick was also Deputy Executive Editor of the Harvard National Security Journal and President of the SJD Association. At Auckland, he wrote his dissertation under Associate Professor Scott Optican and received the New Zealand Ministry of Justice Article Prize. He was also an Editor-in-Chief of the Auckland University Law Review and graduated a Senior Scholar in Law.

Prior to joining Allard Law, Dr. Beswick was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Law School’s Project on the Foundations of Private Law, practised in the Solicitor’s Office of HM Revenue & Customs (London, UK), practised as a litigator at Meredith Connell (the Office of the Crown Solicitor for Auckland), and was a judicial clerk in the High Court of New Zealand.

Research and Publications

To learn more about my research, please visit my PURE Research profile. You can also access my publications on the following sites: 

Courses

Publications

Samuel Beswick
“Error of Law: An Exception to the Discoverability Principle?”
Full text: (2021) 57:2 Osgoode Hall L.J. 295-341
SSRN Abstract
Samuel Beswick
“Prospective Overruling Offends the Rule of Law”
(September 2021) NZLJ 261-267

UBC Library Location
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“Prospective Overruling Unravelled”
(2022) 41:1 CJQ 29-53

Westlaw Article
SSRN Paper
Douglas C. Harris & Samuel Beswick
“Reflections on Building and then Teaching in a HyFlex Classroom at Allard Hall”
Full text: (2021) 79:1 Advocate 75-79

UBC Library Location
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“The Overpaid Tax Litigation: Roadblocked”
Full text: (2021) 84:5 Mod. L. Rev. 1105-1121
SSRN Abstract
Samuel Beswick
Tort Law: Cases and Commentaries
Ottawa: CanLII, 2021

Online Access (with full-text)
(2021 CanLIIDocs 1859)
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Lionel Smith & Samuel Beswick
“Unjust Enrichment: Principle or Cause of Action?”
in Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, Expert Evidence in British Columbia Civil Proceedings,
Vancouver: Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, 2021

SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“Discoverability Principles and the Law's Mistakes”
(2020) 136 L.Q. Rev. 139-164

UBC Library Location
SSRN Abstract
Samuel Beswick
“Retroactive Adjudication”
Full text: (2020) 130:2 Yale LJ 276-545

UBC Library Location
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“The Discoverability of Mistakes of Law”
Introduction: (2019) 58 LMCLQ 112-137
SSRN Abstract
Samuel Beswick & William Fotherby
“Surveilling the Stopgap”
(December 2011) NZLJ 404-411

UBC Library Location
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“Tenant Fees Act 2019: A Welcome Reform”
(2019) 23:3 Landlord & Tenant Rev 79-81
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick & William Fotherby
“The Divergent Paths of Commonwealth Privacy Torts”
(2018) 84 Sup. Ct. L. Rev. (2d) 225-267

UBC Library Location
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“Tenant Fees Bill: Good Intentions - Weak Protections”
(2018) 22:6 Landlord & Tenant Rev 203-207
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“The Decline of the Fish/Mammal Distinction?”
Full text: (2017) 165 U Pa L Rev Online 91-97
SSRN Abstract
Samuel Beswick & William Fotherby
“Don't Tell Me What the Papers Say: PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd”
(2016) 5 J Civ Lit & Prac 212-220
SSRN Abstract
Samuel Beswick
“Enforcing a Holding Deposit Agreement”
(2015) 22:3 Landlord & Tenant Rev 88-91
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“Holding Deposit Agreements: Pre-Tenancy Obligations and Rights”
(2019) 23:3 Landlord & Tenant Rev 79-81
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“'Losses in Any Event' in the Case of Damage to Property”
Full text: (2015) 35:4 Oxford J Legal Stud 755-775
SSRN Abstract
Samuel Beswick
“Privacy: Rights, Remedies and Reform”
(May 2015) NZLJ 166

UBC Library Location
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“From Foundations to Finish? The Continuing Duty Doctrine and Limitations”
(2013) NZL Rev 505-520

UBC Library Location
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“Two Spying Tales”
(July 2013) NZLJ 213-214

UBC Library Location
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“For Your (Government's) Eyes Only”
(July 2013) NZLJ 213-216

UBC Library Location
SSRN Paper
Samuel Beswick
“Perlustration in the Pathless Woods: Hamed v R
Full text: (2011) Auckland UL Rev 291-299
SSRN Paper
Samuel P. Beswick
“Targeted Visual Surveillance in New Zealand: An Analysis and Critique of the Search and Surveillance Bill”
Full text: (2010) NZ L Students' Rev 239-266
SSRN Paper
samuel beswick

Organization Affiliations

  • Centre for Business Law

Research Interests

  • Courts, litigation and access to justice
  • Jurisprudence, legal theory, and critical studies
  • Legal education
  • Tort law

How is the retrospective nature of judge-made law compatible with the rule of law?


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