Staff Profile

Dan joined the Law School at Newcastle University in 2024 after completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge. Prior to his doctoral studies, he practiced for a number of years as an employed barrister at Clyde & Co specialising in marine/energy litigation and arbitration and before that at Fishburns (now DWF) doing professional indemnity work.

His reseach spans various topics within private law, dispute resolution and legal theory. He is interested in the interractions between law and wider currents of societal sentiment and the interractions between legal norms and private planning.

My current research, building on my doctoral thesis, explores the normativity of law, with particular reference to contemporary English law and society.

Virtually all legal theorists take it to be axiomatic that law is a system of "norms" in the sense of rules telling people what they may (or are "permitted to") or must (or are "obligated to") do. My research calls that model into question; I demonstrate that in various ways it does not align with either the doctrinal logic or the wider societal implications of English law. I am seeking to show that we can discard that model and instead conceive of laws as definitional rules operating against the backdrop of, and interracting with, a complex and emotionally nuanced field of societal sentiment. By so doing, I propose that some seemingly intractable jurisprudential problems - in particular, around the much disputed nature of "legal obligation" or "legal permission" - can be dissolved.

I am also currently conducting research into the legal recognition of promises and gifts, and the role that formalities play in private law.

I have also previously studied and written on "black-letter" law topics, including insurance law and dispute resolution.

Undergraduate Teaching

LAW1221 Contract Law (Lecturer)

LAW1054 Introduction to Business Law (Seminar leader)

• Articles

  • Ward, DL. The Arbitration Act 1996, s.44: Interim Assistance From the Court. Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 2020, 472.
  • Ward, DL. A Taxonomy of Legal Control. Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 2018, 31(2), 431.
  • Ward, DL. Joint names insurance and contracts to insure: untangling the threads. Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 2009, 239.
  • Ward, DL. New carrots and sticks: Proposals for Reform of CPR Part 36. Modern Law Review 2007.

• Online Publication

  • Ward, DL. I Think Therefore I Make Mistakes And Change My Mind. Aeon magazine, 2019.