| Stephen Todd | |
| Honorific Suffix: | FRSNZ |
| Education: | University of Sheffield (LL.B.) (LL.M.) University of Canterbury (LL.D.) |
| Occupation: | Professor of Law |
| Employer: | University of Canterbury Faculty of Law |
| Known For: | Tort law, accident compensation scheme, and contract law |
| Notable Works: |
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Stephen Todd is a lawyer and a Professor of Law at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.[1] In 2022 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. The society said "Stephen Todd is a highly influential scholar in private law. He is author or part-author of seven books (30 including successive editions) and author of 49 articles and of chapters in 21 books. His work is widely cited and has had exceptional impact in New Zealand courts and in higher courts overseas."[2]
Stephen Todd graduated the University of Sheffield in 1970 with LLB and completed an LLM at Sheffield in 1972. He concluded his formal education with a Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the University of Canterbury in 2002.
Following his qualification as a barrister, he taught at the University of Western Australia before returning to Sheffield. In 1982, he began his tenure as a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and eventually advanced to a Professor of Law. From 2004, Todd also holds a fractional position as Professor of Common Law at the University of Nottingham, where he gives lectures generally on pure economic loss and birth torts (wrongful birth, wrongful fertilisation).[3]
He is the general editor and principal author of The Law of Torts in New Zealand, and the joint author with two colleagues of The Law of Contract in New Zealand.[4] Sian Elias, former Chief Justice of New Zealand, remarked about Todd on Torts:[5]
His specialisation is New Zealand's accident compensation scheme and its relationship with the common law.[6]
Todd is known by students to sing a number of songs about important torts cases during lectures, including Donoghue v Stevenson. The songs were originally written for the Canterbury University Law Students Society Law Revue. He is known to have a passion for singing, in particular opera. He has authored the book Leading Cases in Song and traditionally brings his lecture series to a culmination by reciting some of the more notable songs within his book.[7] [8]