John Cartwright awarded honorary doctorate by Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas

Professor Cartwright – now an Emeritus Student of Christ Church and Emeritus Professor of the Law of Contract in the University of Oxford – was Tutor in Law at Christ Church from 1982 to 2018. Over nearly four decades he made an exceptional contribution to Law at the College. To honour and celebrate this legacy, Christ Church recently announced the creation of a fund in his name to support legal scholarship and teaching. 

Professor Cartwright’s relationship with Paris–Panthéon–Assas spans more than 20 years. From 2002 to 2024 he taught a wide range of courses at Assas, serving as a Visiting Professor each year until 2018 and subsequently holding a half-time post as Professor of Private Law until his retirement from the University in 2024. He devised and taught courses on English law for undergraduate students, as well as courses on comparative law for Master’s students. Many of those he taught in Paris went on to study in common-law jurisdictions – notably in Oxford through the long-standing student exchange programme with Assas, for which he served as the Oxford Law Faculty’s academic director from 2000 to 2013.

His principal research interests lie in English and comparative private law, with a particular focus on French law. He has collaborated extensively with colleagues in France – many of them at Assas – through joint research projects and conferences. In his publications he has sought both to make English law accessible to civil-law audiences and to illuminate aspects of French law for English readers. This dual contribution to comparative legal understanding was among the achievements highlighted by the University in conferring the honorary doctorate.

This year, seven academics were honoured by Université Paris–Panthéon–Assas for their contributions to law, economics, history, and international relations. The ceremony, held in the Assas Centre, was a splendid occasion attended by Professors and Emeritus Professors of Assas, other members of the teaching staff in their doctoral robes, students, and guests of the honorands. Each recipient was introduced with words of eulogy by a Professor of Assas – in Professor Cartwright’s case, Professor Marie Goré – before the President of the University, Professor Stéphane Braconnier, conferred the title of Docteur Honoris Causa.

Reflecting on the occasion, Professor Cartwright said: ‘It was an immense honour – and wholly unexpected – to receive the title of docteur honoris causa, but I was delighted to accept it in the context of my long relationship with the Université Paris–Panthéon–Assas.

‘On an individual level, the relationship with Assas has given me many valuable opportunities for collaboration in comparative law research and teaching, and on an institutional level it has helped to strengthen and foster the ties between Paris–Panthéon–Assas and the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford.’

This award, the highest distinction conferred by Assas, follows the recent celebration of Professor Cartwright’s outstanding and highly influential scholarship in comparative contract law at a conference held at Christ Church. On 25 and 26 September, academic colleagues from a range of jurisdictions were joined by current and former judges – with whom he co-authored a leading treatise – and by legal practitioners whom he had taught. The symposium, organised by Professor Cartwright’s successor at Christ Church, Professor Ciara Kennefick, together with Professor Birke Häcker (Bonn) and Professor Matthew Dyson (Oxford), discussed papers written specifically in his honour. These papers will, in due course, be published in a volume entitled Comparing Contract Laws.

Christ Church warmly congratulates Professor Cartwright on this distinguished recognition of his teaching, his scholarship and his longstanding international engagement.