Professor David Cooper Jackson passed away peacefully on 27 February 2024 in Sway, Hampshire. He had been a resident of Milford on Sea for many years. David was born on 3 December 1931 to Rev and Mrs James and Mary Emma Jackson. David took his first steps towards his lifelong career in Law at Oxford University where he graduated with a double first (1954).
David Jackson came to Southampton in 1971, from Oxford, Singapore and latterly from a founding chair of law at Monash, Australia’s newest university. There he developed the first of his four main areas of expertise, in Property Law. He combined teaching of the old Land Law course into something more conceptual including personal property. Having only recently (1967) published a book, “Principles of Property Law”, for undergraduate students at that time he was the face of Land Law. He taught the subject at Southampton as it had never been taught before and rounded it off with the Faculty’s first-ever open-book examination that lasted all of four hours. David then developed a second area of expertise and published a book on the “Conflict of Laws”.
By the time David arrived in Southampton, the Robbins expansion of the mid 1960s had happened and the Southampton Law Faculty was an interesting place to be: a place where things were likely to be happening. David had energy and ideas, and he had a distinct impact. The Law Faculty was developing an expertise in maritime law, a relatively rare specialisation. David took an interest. He wrote to a contact in the City of London, where the practice of maritime law was predominantly to be found, seeking advice as to how such an academic interest might be usefully developed. The result was the Maritime Law Short Course, an annual event where the academics presented the latest developments in the field to an audience of lawyers and other practitioners from around the world. It still continues. That led to the establishment of The Institute of Maritime Law, now one of the four leading centres for the study of the subject, the others being the Nordisk Instituut for Sjorett in Oslo, the Admiralty Law Institute in New Orleans and the Centre for Maritime Law in Singapore. David was the first Director of the Institute and was a driving force behind its cooperation with the Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand—that led to numerous maritime law courses being offered by Institute members for practising lawyers in Australasia. David combined his knowledge of the principles of property and conflicts by analysing, in a leading work, the arcane complexities of Admiralty practice. This led to him publishing “The Enforcement of Maritime Claims”, now in its fourth edition.
He played his part in the administration of the University. He was Dean of the Law Faculty, Head of the Law Department and Deputy Vice-Chancellor. His style was open and friendly, and he was always master of his brief. He was a good colleague, always ready with advice and assistance to less senior, and particularly new, members of the department.
Outside the University, he took on the immigration appeals system, finally becoming Chairman of the national Immigration Appeals Tribunal, at a time when there was a substantial increase of immigrants seeking asylum, cases which often presented serious legal difficulties. He said that his work in the Tribunal was just like one of his conflict of laws seminars. With his experience at the Tribunal (and using his knowledge of conflicts) he wrote a book on “Immigration Law” and its practice. To have been a scholar in so many areas is remarkable and evidence of his fertile mind. The maritime and immigration books, in particular, have been regularly cited in courts.
Throughout his career and after, David was supported by his beloved wife of 50 years, Roma (nee Pendergast), who predeceased him in 2017. David and Roma were a much-loved part of the community. David was predeceased by his sister, Dorothea Mary Boulton (2009), he is survived by his nieces, Jane, Nicola and Alison. To those who knew him, David will be remembered as a kind and inspirational leader, while being a dynamic original thinker.