John Gardner (23 March 1965 – 11 July 2019) was a Scottish

legal philosopher Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of law and law's relationship to other systems of norms, especially ethics and political philosophy. It asks questions like "What is law?", "What are the criteria for legal val ...

. He was senior research fellow at

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, and prior to that the Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford and a fellow of

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

Life and career

John Blair Gardner was born in Glasgow on 23 March 1965, the elder of two sons, to William Russell Williamson Gardner and Sylvia Gardner (''née'' Hayward-Jones). His parents were both Germanists. His mother was a secondary school teacher and his father was a senior lecturer at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

and Chairman of the city's Goethe-Institut. John Gardner attended

Glasgow Academy The Glasgow Academy is a coeducational independent day school for pupils aged 3–18 in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2016, it had the third-best Higher level exam results in Scotland. Founded in 1845, it is the oldest continuously fully independent ...

from 1970 to 1982. He won (in 1982) a place to study modern languages at New College but switched to law before his first term (in 1983) began. At the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, Gardner received his BA, BCL (winning the

Vinerian Scholarship The Vinerian Scholarship is a scholarship given to the University of Oxford student who "gives the best performance in the examination for the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law". Currently, £2,500 is given to the winner of the scholarship, with an ...

), MA, and

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

, under the supervision of

Joseph Raz Joseph Raz (; he, יוסף רז; born Zaltsman; 21 March 19392 May 2022) was an Israeli legal, moral and political philosopher. He was an advocate of legal positivism and is known for his conception of perfectionist liberalism. Raz spent mos ...

and

Tony Honoré Anthony Maurice Honoré, (30 March 1921 – 26 February 2019) was a British lawyer and jurist, known for his work on ownership, causation and Roman law.John Gardne''Tony Honoré as Teacher and Mentor: A Personal Memoir''; read 1 April 2014. Bio ...

. He was associated with New College (as a student, 1983–7),

(as a fellow, 1986–1991, 1998–2000 and 2016–2019), and

Brasenose College Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

(as a fellow, 1991–1996). From 1996 to 2000 he was reader in legal philosophy at King's College London. In 2000, at the age of just 35, he was appointed Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford, taking over the chair previously held by

H. L. A. Hart Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart (18 July 190719 December 1992), known simply as H. L. A. Hart, was an English legal philosopher. He was Professor of Jurisprudence (University of Oxford), Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford University an ...

and Ronald Dworkin. In order to dedicate more time to his research he resigned the chair in 2016 and returned to All Souls as a senior research fellow. Gardner died of cancer in July 2019, aged 54.

Honours and awards

Gardner held several visiting positions, including at Columbia (2000),

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

(2002–3, 2005),

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

(2008), the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

(2003, 2006, 2008), and most recently

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach a ...

(2015). A (non-practising) barrister since 1988, Gardner was elected an (Academic or Honorary) Bencher of the Honourable Society of the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...

(one of the

Inns of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They have ...

) in 2003. He was elected a fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

in 2013.

Bibliography

Books

*''Offences and Defences: Selected Essays in the Philosophy of Criminal Law'' (2007) *''Law as a Leap of Faith: Essays on Law in General'' (2012) *''From Personal Life to Private Law'' (2018) *''Torts and other Wrongs'' (2020) Full list of publications at Gardner'
Faculty Homepage

References

External links

Obituaries

''John Gardner 1965 - 2019: An Appreciation''
(University of Oxford Law Faculty) Summary by Sandy Steele (12 July 2019)
''John Gardner 1965 - 2019''

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Law Faculty obituary by Annalise Acorn (17 July 2019) *
John Gardner obituary
' by

Nicola Lacey Nicola Mary Lacey, (born 3 February 1958) is a British legal scholar who specialises in criminal law. Her research interests include criminal justice, criminal responsibility, and the political economy of punishment. Since 2013, she has been Pro ...

for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' (22 July 2019) *
Obituary: John Gardner, internationally-renowned legal philosopher
' by Colin Kidd for '' The Herald'' (24 July 2019)
Obituary: John Gardner
in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' (2 August 2019) *'
ohn Gardner: Academic who shone in the field of legal philosophy
' obituary in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' by Stephen Shute and Annalise Acorn (9 August 2019)

Interviews

*(2019
interview
by Carolina Flores. ext*(2018)
John Gardner and Timothy Macklem discuss Joseph Raz
'

ideo IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, enviro ...

*(2017)
Law as a Leap of Faith: John Gardner interviewed by Richard Marshall
' ext*(2012
Interview with John Gardner, by Diego Papayannis

*(2013
''John Gardner on Constitutions''
with '' Philosophy Bites'' udio*(2010)

Radio New Zealand National RNZ National ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa Ā-Motu), formerly Radio New Zealand National, and known until 2007 as the National Programme or National Radio, is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand English-language radio network operat ...

“Nine to Noon�
interview
on the morality of policing. udio

Lectures (video/podcast)

*The Aristotelian Society presents: Professor John Gardner (Oxford) –
Discrimination: The Good, the Bad, and the Wrongful
' (podcast, 2017)

(Video) lso_hosted_[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aTJgTTOA8_hereon_Youtube.html" ;"title="ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aTJgTTOA8 here">lso hosted [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aTJgTTOA8 hereon Youtube">ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aTJgTTOA8 here">lso hosted [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aTJgTTOA8 hereon Youtube

Further resources

University of Oxford profile
(short biography, full list of publications, research interests).

(which includes 'post preprints' (completed but pre-refereed versions) of all his book reviews, of some of his articles and chapters, of interviews and memoirs plus links to video and audio broadcasts).

Open access papers

(Incomplete list) [also se

and Gardner's Academia.edu]
page
for Preprints/drafts] see Gardner's SSRN autho
page
for papers free for PDF download (or browser viewing with registration) titles include
Law as a Leap of Faith
' (2000)
papers
in the ''

Oxford Journal of Legal Studies The ''Oxford Journal of Legal Studies'' is a legal journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2018 impact factor of 1.083, ...

,'' including ''On the Ground of Her Sex(uality) (''1988) which was cited in the landmark '' Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India'
ruling
*
Legal Positivism: 5 1/2 Myths
'' (2001) ''American Journal of Jurisprudence:'' Vol. 46 : Iss. 1 , Article 12 nowiki/>PDF_view/download.html"_;"title="PDF.html"_;"title="nowiki/>PDF">nowiki/>PDF_view/download">PDF.html"_;"title="nowiki/>PDF">nowiki/>PDF_view/download*
'Simply_In_Virtue_of_Being_Human'_The_Whos_and_Whys_of_Human_Rights
'_(2007)_''Journal_of_Ethics_&_Social_Philosophy.html" ;"title="PDF">nowiki/>PDF_view/download.html" ;"title="PDF.html" ;"title="nowiki/>PDF">nowiki/>PDF view/download">PDF.html" ;"title="nowiki/>PDF">nowiki/>PDF view/download*
'Simply In Virtue of Being Human' The Whos and Whys of Human Rights
' (2007) ''Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy">Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy,'' Vol 2 No 2 (2007): Volume II, Issue 2 [PDF download] {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, John 1965 births 2019 deaths People educated at the Glasgow Academy Professors of Jurisprudence (University of Oxford) Scottish legal scholars Alumni of New College, Oxford Fellows of University College, Oxford Academics of King's College London Philosophers of law Lawyers from Glasgow Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford Members of the Inner Temple Fellows of the British Academy Scottish philosophers