J. H. C. Morris

John Humphrey Carlile Morris (18 February 1910 – 29 September 1984) was a British legal scholar, best known for his contributions to the conflict of laws.

Early life and education

John Morris was born in Wimbledon on 18 February 1910, to Humphrey William Morris and Jessie Muriel, daughter of Henry Vercoe, of Pendarves, Camborne, Cornwall. Humphrey Morris had become a successful London solicitor, following his father, Howard Carlile Morris, who was a partner in a firm he had co-founded. Howard Morris's mother, Sarah Anne Carlile, was of a Scottish family; cousins were the politician and businessman Sir Hildred Carlile, 1st Baronet, and his brother Wilson Carlile, founder of the Church Army.

Like his father, Morris was educated at Charterhouse School where he was elected to a Holford Scholarship to read history at Christ Church, Oxford, although after two terms he switched to study law. and he taught the subject for decades to BCL students at Oxford. But he is most famous as general editor of what is now as Dicey Morris & Collins on the Conflict of Laws. However he also published the 9th edition of Theobald on Wills and Cases on Private International Law, and wrote extensively on property law.

Morris was a longstanding critic of the double actionability rule in tort, The foreword was written by Lord Scarman, who expressed himself as indebted to Morris for his guidance during his (Scarman's) time as Chairman of the Law Commission.

Outside of his academic and legal career, Morris wrote Thank You, Wodehouse in 1981, a book of essays about the work of comic novelist P. G. Wodehouse, of whom Morris was a devoted fan.

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