Rate My Professor Peter Handford

Peter Handford is an Emeritus Professor in the UWA Law School at the University of Western Australia, where he taught from 1977 to 2016 and continues as a Senior Honorary Research Fellow. Born in Birmingham in 1946, he earned his LLB from the University of Birmingham in 1968 and PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1975, supported by the Thomas Waraker Law Postgraduate Scholarship. His academic career commenced as Lecturer in Law at the University of Leicester from 1970 to 1978. Joining UWA initially for a six-month teaching stint in 1977, he emigrated permanently in 1978 and served as Sub-Dean from 1979 to 1982. From 1983 to 1998, he was Executive Officer and Director of Research at the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia, authoring reports on limitation of actions, wills, probate, spent convictions, Police Act offences, and sale of goods, while maintaining part-time teaching duties including Legal Process, Comparative Law, Conflict of Laws, and Torts. Returning full-time in 1998 as Senior Lecturer, he advanced to Associate Professor in 1999 and Professor in 2004. As Deputy Dean until September 2012 and Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning thereafter, he oversaw curriculum reform, planning the transition from LLB to the Juris Doctor degree introduced in 2013. He taught core units such as Torts and Advanced Torts Law, partnering with colleagues from the UK and locally.

Handford's research focuses on torts, particularly liability for psychiatric injury, limitation of actions, legal history, law reform, and comparative law. Notable publications include Tort Liability for Psychiatric Damage (1993, with NJ Mullany), the fifth edition of Limitation of Actions: The Laws of Australia, and editorial contributions to the forthcoming 11th edition of Fleming's The Law of Torts, with his work on Fleming's cited over 1200 times. Other key works encompass articles such as 'Intentional Negligence: A Contradiction in Terms?' (2010, Sydney Law Review), 'Psychiatric Injury in Breach of a Relationship' (2007, Legal Studies), 'Liability for Work Stress: Koehler Ten Years On' (2015, University of Western Australia Law Review), and historical pieces on 19th-century prosecutions and the first nervous shock case. A member of the Tort Law Review editorial board since 1993, he served on the Law Reform Commission (1993-1995), Uniform Succession Law National Project Committee (1995-1997), Attorney General's Working Group on succession law (2004-2019), and Francis Burt Law Education Programme Advisory Committee (2000-2022), chairing its sub-committee on oral history and the Old Court House Museum (2013-2022). His scholarship has been cited in 174 court cases, including recent UK Supreme Court and Australian decisions, and he has delivered 40 public lectures. Currently, he is authoring the Centenary History of the UWA Law School for publication in 2028.