Mr Max Weaver

I joined the then South Bank Polytechnic in 1972 to develop law degree and department and served as a Dean before going to what became London Guildhall University and eventually London Metropolitan University (Dean of Law and then Deputy Provost/Deputy Vice-Chancellor). After a period as CEO of a substantial charity, I returned to LSBU in 2009 to teach torts, a subject of long-standing interest and now medical law and ethics.
My publications include articles and case notes on tort law; legal theory (especially the nature of judicial discretion); legal education; and the evaluation and impact of complex organisations.

I am a visiting professor and part-time teacher in the Division of Law. I first joined LSBU in 1972, having previously worked what is now Kingston University and became South Bank’s first head of law and Dean of Administrative Studies. Our LL B course was one of the first in the UK to include a law clinic. From 1983-2004, I was Dean of Law, and then a deputy vice-chancellor, at what is now London Metropolitan University and was also heavily involved in external quality assurance. Thereafter, I was Chief Executive of a large multi-purpose charity before, in 2009, returning to South Bank to teach tort law — and now medical law and ethics.
I believe that it is crucial to appreciate that law is not simply words in statutes, judgements and books, but a living phenomenon at work in society. My particular interests lie in: the study of decision-making (by judges and medics); the interpretivity of normative language; and the intersections between justificatory reasoning and values and emotions. These interests have resulted in a succession of several articles and conference papers.
My current project is on virtue ethics in medicine and in law. Neither deontological nor consequentialist approaches provide completely satisfactory justifications for decisions. Virtue ethics focuses on the quality of decision-making and the decision-makers. But that approach tends to reduce rule-governed predictability and to remove the legitimating cloak that the rule of law (and not individuals) seems to provide.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
-Society of Legal Scholars
-Industrial Law Society
-Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
EXTERNAL ACTIVITIES
-Trustee, London Bridge Museum and Educational Trust
-Management Committee Member, Affordable Accommodation for Students Housing Association
-Editor, Newsletter of the Worshipful Company of Educators (of which he is a founding member and Past Master)
-Enthusiastic trumpet and cornet player and conductor

Tort Law Medical law and Ethics Law and Society Labour Law Constitutional Law Contract Law