Gareth Jones, who has died aged 85, was one of many foremost authorized lecturers of his era: Downing Professor of the Legal guidelines of England at Cambridge for 23 years, Vice-Grasp of Trinity Faculty for 9, and creator with Lord Goff of The Regulation of Restitution (1966), which established in English regulation the subject of unjust enrichment.
Participating, impish, and inspirational to his college students, Jones got here to Trinity in 1961 after a stunning scholastic profession which started in a Despair-hit pit village within the Rhondda. It took in College Faculty London; St Catharine’s, Cambridge; Harvard Regulation College; Lincoln’s Inn; and lectureships at Oxford and King’s Faculty London. As soon as at Trinity, Jones turned down an invite to return to Harvard with the final word prize of tenure.
Trinity’s annual consumption of regulation college students – barely a dozen – is small in contrast with its neighbour Trinity Corridor, however many develop into main lights within the judiciary, Whitehall and academia. Trinity’s Regulation dons have constantly punched above their weight, with Jones to the fore.
Jones was not solely an mental heavyweight however influential in college and faculty affairs. He chaired the Regulation School from 1978 to 1981, and for many years taught a revered LLM course on restitution. He additionally served on necessary however time-consuming college our bodies, amongst them the Council of the Senate.
Whereas on the college’s Common Board, Jones investigated whether or not posts inside the deeply divided English school have been being pretty allotted. On the College Press Syndicate, he helped break down administration’s resistance to disclosing the Press’s wage construction to the college.
For 12 years, he chaired the Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate. For a lot of this time the imperious Michael Jaffé was director; Jones appreciated his aesthetic eye which helped construct a set of “magnificence, high quality and rarity”.
Jones additionally turned a central determine at Trinity, serving as steward, tutor, senior tutor and finally Vice-Grasp. He was concerned within the processes that led to the appointment by the Queen of two Masters – Sir Michael Atiyah and Amartya Sen – and in 1997 was appearing Grasp in the course of the three-month interregnum between the 2, providing the identical open-hearted hospitality within the Grasp’s Lodge for which he and his spouse Vivienne have been famous in their very own dwelling.
Jones mixed these actions with in depth journey. He lectured worldwide and held visiting professorships at a number of American universities, notably Chicago the place he taught for 20 years. From 1998 he taught on the College of Michigan.
He however discovered time for writing and analysis. Its high quality was recognised in his appointment as a Cambridge LLD in 1972, an honorary Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn in 1975, a QC in 1986 and an honorary Fellow of UCL in 1988.
His research embraced authorized historical past, contract, property and trusts. On the primary he wrote his Historical past of the Regulation of Charity 1532-1827 (1969) and on the second Particular Efficiency (1986) with William Goodhart. He additionally printed The Sovereignty of the Regulation (1983) and quite a few articles.
Gareth Hywel Jones was born at Tylorstown, Glamorgan, on November 10 1930, the one son of B T Jones, a council surveyor, and his spouse Mabel, a trainer.
Gareth’s childhood was dour. No drink was taken; there was Chapel twice each Sunday (he couldn’t perceive the sermons as they have been in Welsh), and he hardly spoke to a lady, cousins aside, till he went to school.
From the Rhondda County College for Boys he received a spot at UCL to learn Regulation. Graduating in 1951, he received a scholarship to St Catharine’s to take a Cambridge LLB. In his remaining 12 months there, he was awarded a Choate Fellowship at Harvard Regulation College, the place he spent a rigorous however pleasurable 12 months finding out the regulation of restitution, making lifelong pals and being marked down as a person to look at.
Having arrived in fashion on the maiden voyage of SS United States, Jones went dwelling on a slower and grubbier ship. He anticipated to start his Nationwide Service, however failed the eyesight take a look at. As an alternative he studied for the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn, once more with a scholarship, however after being known as in 1955 noticed little prospect of labor.
He accepted a lectureship at Oxford shared between Oriel and Exeter schools, with rooms in Oriel. A colleague launched him to Robert Goff, who had left Oxford for the Bar and was engaged on the primary English textbook on restitution. Goff invited Jones to collaborate, and 6 years later The Regulation of Restitution was printed; it has since gone by seven editions.
In 1958 Jones moved to King’s Faculty, London. Two years later he submitted an essay to the Cambridge regulation school for the Yorke Prize and was declared the winner; quickly afterwards he was invited to Trinity.
He arrived on the faculty in October 1961 to affix a Regulation staff headed by Tony Jolowicz and Eli Lauterpacht, changing into a Fellow and a college assistant lecturer.
After 5 busy years, he was invited again to Harvard for a 12 months. Whereas there, he transcribed a Seventeenth-century manuscript, written in regulation French, for his Historical past of the Regulation of Charity. He additionally impressed as a trainer, and on the finish of the 12 months was supplied a tenured professorship. He was tempted, however finally declined.
Within the meantime, Jones had been appointed a tutor at Trinity, and in 1972 was appointed Senior Tutor. Two years later Stanley de Smith, the Downing Professor, died, making a emptiness for one in every of solely two chairs of English Regulation. A senior School member advised Jones “have a shot”, and to his shock he was elected.
Earlier than taking over his chair in 1975, he took a long-planned sabbatical, first at Harvard after which on the College of Chicago. For the following 20 years, Jones spent every Spring “Quarter” – overlaying Cambridge’s Easter trip and the primary weeks of the Easter Time period – in Chicago whereas fulfilling all his Cambridge duties.
Jones needed to resign as a tutor and depart Trinity’s regulation workers when he took up his chair. However he continued on the Faculty Council, serving for 19 years, and in 1986 was elected Vice-Grasp – a publish which carries a heavy workload, not least in chairing faculty committees.
When Andrew Huxley retired as Grasp in 1990, it fell to Jones to liaise with the patronage secretary who advises the prime minister on Royal appointments, together with the Mastership of Trinity. Soundings inside the faculty and past led to Sir Michael Atiyah’s appointment.
Jones stood down as Vice-Grasp in 1992, however in 1996 was persuaded to face once more, and for a second time was elected unopposed. A 12 months later Sir Michael resigned, and Amartya Sen was appointed to succeed him.
When Jones got here up for re-election in 1998 he confronted a contest. He was comfortably re-elected, however stood down the following 12 months.
Gareth Jones married Vivienne Puckridge in 1959; they’d two sons and a daughter. She died in 2004. He’s survived by his youngsters and by Dilys Brewer, his associate in recent times.
Gareth Jones, born November 10 1930, died April 2 2016
