Mike Macnair
Retired
Biography
Mike Macnair was from 2000-2022 Ann Smart Tutorial Fellow in Law at St Hugh's College; and having retired from that post, is now a Fellow by Resolution of St Hugh's.
Mike’s interests are primarily in legal history: particularly the history of equity, that of procedure, and historical relations between the common law and civil law tradition. He also has an interest in Marxist theory and its application to understanding law (in the sense of legal doctrine) as a social and historical phenomenon, and the ‘limits of law’. ‘Doing law’ without a sense of its history is in his opinion like trying to live without a long-term memory.
He is currently working, with several colleagues, on Volume IX of the Oxford History of the Laws of England, covering the period 1689-1760.
Mike teaches legal history at undergraduate level (History of English Law) and masters’ level (BCL/MJur Law and Society in Medieval England, and BCL/MJur Roman and Civilian Law of Contracts); and gives tutorials in Roman Introduction to Private Law. He has supervised D.Phil, M.St., and BCL/MJur theses in legal-historical topics.
Publications
Macnair M, ‘Eighteenth-Century Antecedents and Rivals of Blackstone’s Institutionalism’ (2022) 35(1) History of Universities 134
Macnair M, ‘On reducing undue trust in judges: Or, against the modern doctrine of precedent’ (2020) 31(1) King’s Law Journal 41
Macnair M, ‘Intersectionalism, the highest stage of western stalinism?’ (2018) 46(4) Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory 541
MACNAIR M, ‘Development of Uses and Trusts: Contract or Property, and European Influences and Images’ (2015) 66 Studi Urbinati A - Scienze Giuridiche, Politiche Ed Economiche 305
Macnair M, ‘The History of the Law of Landlord and Tenant in England and Wales. by Mark Wonnacott. [The Lawbook Exchange, 2011. lvi, 363 pp. Hardback $75. ISBN 978-1-61619-223-5.]’ (2014) 73(1) The Cambridge Law Journal 172
Macnair M, ‘Paul D. Halliday, Habeas Corpus: From England to Empire, Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. Pp. 512. $ 39.95 (ISBN 978-0-674-04901-7).’ (2011) 29(2) Law and History Review 629
Macnair M, ‘Equity and Conscience’ (2007) 27(4) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 659
Macnair M, ‘Law and State as Holes in Marxist Theory’ (2006) 34(3) Critique 211
Macnair M, ‘The Court of Exchequer and Equity’ (2001) 22(3) Journal of Legal History 75
MacNair M and Shapiro B, ‘A Culture of Fact: England 1550–1720’ (2000) 44(4) American Journal of Legal History 445
Macnair M, ‘The Case of the Careless Purchaser, or, Bonitary Ownership and Ownership’ in B Spagnolo and J Sampson (eds.), Principle and Pragmatism in Roman Law (Hart 2020)
Macnair M, ‘Institutional Taxonomy, Roman Forms and English Lawyers in the 17th and 18th Centuries’ in P Bonin and others (eds.), Pensiero Giuridico Occidentale e Giuristi Romani: Eredita e Genealogie (G. Giappichelli Editore 2019)
MACNAIR M, ‘Length and Time and Related Equitable Bars 1660-1760’, Prescription and Limitation (Duncker & Humblot GmbH 2019)
Macnair M, ‘English Limitation Reforms and Controversies 1934-2016’ in H Dondorp, D Ibbetson and E J.H. Schrage (eds.), Limitation and Prescription: a comparative legal history (Duncker & Humblot 2019)
Macnair M, ‘Can Judges be Trusted with the Common Law?’ in R Ekins and G Gee (eds.), Judicial Power and the Left (Policy Exchange 2017)
Macnair M, ‘Equitable protection of legal professional privilege’, Equity and Administration (Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2016)
Macnair M, ‘Good Faith in English Contract Law before 1850’ in J Hallebeek and others (eds.), Inter cives necnon Peregrinos: essays in honour of Boudewijn Sirks (V&R unipress 2014)
Macnair M, ‘Sham: early uses and related and unrelated doctrines.’ in E Simpson and M Stewart (eds.), Sham Transactions (OUP 2013)
Macnair M, ‘Coke v Fountaine (1676)’ in C Mitchell and P Mitchell (eds.), Landmark Cases in Equity (Hart 2012)
Getzler J and Macnair M, ‘The firm as an entity before the companies acts’, Adventures of the law : proceedings of the Sixteenth British Legal History Conference, Dublin (Four Courts Press 2005)
Macnair M, ‘Talbot, Charles, first Baron Talbot of Hensol (bap. 1685, d. 1737)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press 2004)
Macnair M, ‘Comyns, Sir John (c.1667–1740)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press 2004)
Macnair M, ‘Gilbert, sir Jeffray (1674–1726)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press 2004)
Macnair M, ‘Hill, George (c.1716–1808)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press 2004)
Macnair M, ‘Lord King and Lord Talbot: An Eighteenth Century Attempt to reduce delay in Equity and its general lessons’ in CH van Rhee (ed.), The Law’s Delay : Essays on Undue Delay in Civil Litigation (Intersentia 2004)
Macnair M, ‘Book review: The Acts of James II’s Irish Parliament of 1689. Edited by John Bergin and Andrew Lyall. [Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2016. lx + 263 pp.’ (2018) 77(2) Cambridge Law Journal 420 (review)
Macnair M, ‘Review of ’The Acts of James II’s Irish Parliament of 1689’’ (2018) 77(2) Cambridge Law Journal 420 (review)
Macnair M, ‘Review of Mark Wonnacott, ’The History of the Law of Landlord and Tenant in England and Wales’’ (2014) 73(1) Cambridge Law Journal 172 (review)
Macnair M, ‘Review of John Tiley ed., Studies in the History of Tax Law volumes 3 and 4’ (2012) 2012(5) British Tax Review 676 (review)
Macnair M, ‘Free Association versus Juridification’ (2011) 39(1) Critique 53 (review)
Macnair M, ‘Review of Paul D Halliday, Habeas Corpus: From England to Empire’ (2011) 29(2) Law & History Review 629 (review)
Macnair M, ‘Marxism and Freedom of Communication’ (2009) 37(4) Critique 565 (review)
Macnair M, ‘’Gilbert - The Law of Evidence’’ (2017) Springer 283