Dr Colm McGrath

Colm joined The Dickson Poon School of Law in January 2018. He acts as the module convener for the Law of Tort, is a member of the School's Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, an Academic Fellow of the Middle Temple, and a Global Associate Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame’s London programme.

Previously, he was the WYNG Research Fellow in Medical Law and Ethics at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was a member of the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Law, Medicine and Life Sciences. Before that, he worked as a scientific assistant at the Institute for European Tort Law in Vienna and was a University Lecturer in Law at the University of Graz. He studied law as an undergraduate and as a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge.

Colm is joint General Editor of the long-running Journal of Professional Negligence and the Book Review Editor for the Journal of European Tort Law. He is a Fellow of the European Centre for Tort and Insurance Law in Vienna and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Rivista Responsabilita Medica. From 2018–2020 Colm was an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge where he lectured on Roman Law.

Born and raised in Belfast, Colm believes that studying law at university should be an option for anyone who wishes to do it, regardless of their background. He has extensive experience in providing accessible introductions to law for school students of all ages and is always happy to be asked to do so. When he is not surrounded by books, he enjoys blues guitar, cooking and hiking.

Research Interests

Colm's research focuses on comparative private law and professional liability, with a strong emphasis on the liability and regulation of the medical profession in the UK and beyond. His work often seeks to explain the relationship between private law and society both as a historical and a modern phenomenon.

His monograph, ‘The Development of Medical Liability in Germany 1800–1945,’ was selected as one of nine Legal Books of the Year by the leading German law journal, the Neue Juristische Wochenschrift in 2019.

Colm has provided Professional Education and Development modules for the medical professions in the UK and Hong Kong and is always happy to be approached for such events as it provides an invaluable opportunity to see law in action in the wider community.

Teaching

Tort Law; Medical Law; Contract Law; Comparative Law; Roman Law; Legal History