Professor Catherine Mitchell

Professor Catherine Mitchell

Birmingham Law School
Emeritus Professor of Contract Law

Contact details

Email
c.e.mitchell@bham.ac.uk
Address
Birmingham Law School
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Catherine Mitchell’s research and teaching centres mainly around Contract law and related subjects. She has published widely on different aspects of contract law and her work has been cited by the House of Lords, the Singapore Court of Appeal and by the Law Commissions of England and Scotland. Catherine retired from Birmingham Law School and was appointed Emeritus Professor in September 2024.

Qualifications

  • LLB Hons (Essex)
  • LLM (Aberd)
  • PhD (Hull)
  • FHEA

Biography

Catherine joined Birmingham Law School in 2016 after 23 years in the Law School at the University of Hull. She graduated in Law from the University of Essex in 1988. She also holds a Masters degree in Jurisprudence from the University of Aberdeen (1992). 聽She gained her PhD through published works in 2015. Her main teaching responsibilities are in Contract Law, Commercial Law and related subjects. 聽She became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2015. She was promoted to Professor at the beginning of 2023.

Research

Catherine's research interests lie primarily within the field of the private law of obligations. In particular all aspects of contract law including the nature and theory of contractual obligations, remedies, consumer and commercial contracts, and the relationship between contract, tort and restitution. She is also interested in legal theory, particularly legal reasoning, interpretation in law, and law and literature.

The research for her most recent monograph, (Cambridge University Press 2022), was supported by a Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust. Previous works include聽Contract Law And Contract Practice: Bridging The Gap Between Legal Reasoning And Commercial Expectation聽(Hart 2013), the first edition of聽Interpretation of Contracts聽(Routledge Cavendish 2007) and a second edition of the same work published by Routledge in 2018. In addition to books, she has published articles and short papers on a variety of contract issues: exclusion clauses, third party rights, restitutionary damages, entire agreement clauses,聽networks and contract law, and the law relating to behavioural obligations in contracts.

Her current projects include an examination of the effect of the covid crisis on contract law, and an investigation into the contract law aspects of the automation of contracting processes. 聽

Other activities

  • External Examiner on LLB degrees, Dublin City University (2014-2018) and University of Hull (2022-present)
  • Member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Contract Law
  • Member of the AHRC Peer Review College

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Mitchell, C 2022, . Law in Context, Cambridge University Press.

Mitchell, C 2018, . 2nd edn, Routledge. <>

Mitchell, C 2013, . Hart Publishing.

Article

Mitchell, C 2024, '', Legal Studies.

Mitchell, C 2016, '', Journal of Contract Law, vol. 33, pp. 234-253.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Mitchell, C 2020, in A Johnston & L Talbot (eds), Great Debates in Commercial and Corporate Law . Palrave.

Mitchell, C 2019, . in D Campbell & R Halson (eds), Research Handbook on Remedies in Private Law . Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 68-84.

Mitchell, C 2017, in R Brownsword, RAJ van Gestel & H-W Micklitz (eds), Contract and Regulation: A Handbook on New Methods of Law Making in Private Law. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 198-234.

Chapter

Mitchell, C 2015, . in LA DiMatteo & M Hogg (eds), Comparative Contract Law: British and American Perspectives. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 231-247.

Book/Film/Article review

Mitchell, C 2023, '', Journal of Law and Society.

Mitchell, C 2014, '', International Company and Commercial Law Review, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 323-325.

Other chapter contribution

Mitchell, C 2016, . in LA DiMatteo & M Hogg (eds), Comparative Contract Law: British and American Perspectives. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 286-289.