Peter Brian Herrenden Birks QC FBA (3 October 1941 – 6 July 2004) was the Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford from 1989 until his death.
[1] In his obituary, he was described as "a key figure in the extraordinary development of the law of restitution in the last 45 years".
In Woolwich Building Society v Inland Revenue Commissioners the House of Lords substantially adopted the reasoning set out in an academic essay by Birks, described in the judgment of Lord Goff as "powerful".
Birks was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001.
[3] Peter Birks arrived at his Kent grammar school (Chislehurst and Sidcup) in 1957 after a year at Repton and after spending his childhood in India.