Search
photo of Thomas Bennett

Dr Thomas Bennett

Senior Lecturer

The City Law School Academic law programmes

Contact details

Address

Dr Thomas Bennett City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

About

Overview

Tom's principal field of research concerns the manner in which judges elaborate the common law (particularly in tort), and the inter-relationship between common law development, legal practice and the imagination. His work has, in recent years, focused on the burgeoning development of protections for privacy rights in England and across the common law world. Beyond the law relating to privacy, Tom also has a broad doctrinal interest in defamation and reputation management, a general interest in domestic and European human rights law, the overlap between human rights and tort law, and the courts' adjudicative method in cases involving the human rights of children.

Tom holds degrees from Newcastle University (LL.B (Hons)) and City University (LL.M (Distinction)). He was called to the Bar in 2009 (Inner Temple), following which he elected to pursue an academic career. He was awarded a Ph.D by Durham University in March 2018, for his thesis: "Imagining Privacy in the Common Law".

At City Law School, Tom teaches primarily in Tort Law and Media Law, including lecturing in the second-year LLB elective module 'Further Issues in Tort'. He is happy to supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on areas within his competence, and welcomes approaches from prospective Ph.D candidates interested in pursuing doctoral study within his field of expertise.

Tom is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

In October 2018, Tom founded the Media Law Podcast along with co-host Paul Wragg.

Memberships of professional organisations

  1. Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy, 2018 – present

Teaching

Teaching

LU2022 - Further Issues in Tort (LL.B)
LU2021 - Media Law (LL.B)
LD3007 - Tort Law (GDL)

Publications

Publications by category

Books (2)

  1. Mullender, R., Nicolini, M., Bennett, T.D.C. and Mickiewicz, E. (Eds.), (2020). Law and Imagination in Troubled Times: A Legal and Literary Discourse. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-34411-5.
  2. Bennett, T.D.C. and Síthigh, D.M. (2017). The Campbell Legacy: Reflections on the Tort of Misuse of Private Information. ISBN 978-1-138-05796-8.

Chapters (3)

  1. Bennett, T.D.C. and Reilly, O. (2020). A Coleridgean Dystopia: Formalism and the Optics of Judgment. Law and Imagination in Troubled Times: A Legal and Literary Discourse (pp. 206–238). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-34411-5.
  2. Bennett, T.D.C. (2020). Privacy and incrementalism. In Koltay, A. and Wragg, P. (Eds.), Comparative Privacy and Defamation (pp. 24–47). Edward Elgar. ISBN 978-1-78897-058-7.
  3. Bennett, T.D.C. (2017). ‘Commentary on AAA v Associated Newspapers Ltd’. In Stalford, H., Hollingsworth, K. and Gilmore, S. (Eds.), Rewriting Children’s Rights Judgments From Academic Vision to New Practice Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78225-926-8.

Journal articles (15)

  1. Bennett, T.D.C. (2019). Triangulating Intrusion in Privacy Law. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 39(4), pp. 751–778. doi:10.1093/ojls/gqz024.
  2. Bennett, T.D.C. and Wragg, P. (2018). Was Richard v BBC correctly decided? Communications Law, 23(3), pp. 151–151.
  3. Bennett, T.D.C. (2018). Judicial Activism and the Nature of "Misuse of Private Information". Communications Law, 23(2), pp. 74–74.
  4. Bennett, T.D.C. (2018). Why so serious? Lachaux and the threshold of ‘serious harm’ in section 1 Defamation Act 2013. Journal of Media Law, 10(1), pp. 1–16. doi:10.1080/17577632.2018.1446403.
  5. Bennett, T.D.C. (2015). Privacy, third parties and judicial method: Wainwright 's legacy of uncertainty. Journal of Media Law, 7(2), pp. 251–277. doi:10.1080/17577632.2015.1108586.
  6. Bennett, T.D.C. and Síthigh, D.M. (2015). Introduction: The Campbell legacy. Journal of Media Law, 7(2), pp. 152–154. doi:10.1080/17577632.2015.1126985.
  7. Bennett, T.D.C. (2014). Privacy, Free Speech and Ruthlessness: The Australian Law Reform Commission's Report, Serious Invasions of Privacy in the Digital Era. Journal of Media Law, 6(2), pp. 193–205. doi:10.5235/17577632.6.2.193.
  8. Bennett, T.D.C. (2014). Emerging privacy torts in Canada and New Zealand: an English perspective. European Intellectual Property Review, 36(5), pp. 298–305.
  9. Bennett, T.D.C. (2013). Privacy, Corrective Justice, and Incrementalism: Legal Imagination and the Recognition of a Privacy Tort in Ontario. McGill Law Journal, 59(1), pp. 49–49. doi:10.7202/1018985ar.
  10. Bennett, T.D.C. (2012). Flood v Times Newspapers Ltd: Reynolds privilege returns to the UK’s highest court’. Entertainment Law Review, 23(5), pp. 134–134.
  11. Bennett, T.D.C. (2011). The Relevance and Importance of Third Party Interests in Privacy Cases. Law Quarterly Review, 127, pp. 531–531.
  12. Bennett, T.D.C. (2010). Corrective Justice and Horizontal Privacy: A Leaf Out of Wright J’s Book. The Journal Jurisprudence, 7, pp. 545–545.
  13. Bennett, T.D.C. (2010). Horizontality’s New Horizons – Re-examining Horizontal Effect: Privacy, Defamation and the Human Rights Act – Part II. Entertainment Law Review, 21(4), pp. 145–145.
  14. Bennett, T.D.C. (2010). Horizontality’s New Horizons – Re-examining Horizontal Effect: Privacy, Defamation and the Human Rights Act – Part I. Entertainment Law Review, 21(3), pp. 96–96.
  15. Bennett, T.D.C. (2009). Material increase in risk of mesothelioma under section 3 of the Compensation Act 2006. Journal of Professional Negligence, 25(4), pp. 210–210.