Bernard Stuart Jackson is a former law professor at Liverpool Polytechnic, the University of Kent (1985), and the University of Liverpool (Queen Victoria Professor of Law, 1989–97). From 1997-2009 he was Alliance Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester, Co-Director of its Centre for Jewish Studies and Director of its Agunah Research Unit (2004–09). Latterly, he was (PT) Professor of Law and Jewish Studies at Liverpool Hope University (2009–15). His major academic interests are legal theory, semiotics, and Jewish law.
Jackson was the founding editor of The Jewish Law Annual, 1978–97; and (with others) has published An Introduction to the History and Sources of Jewish Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996). Jackson works with colleagues in the Mishpat Ivri movement yet he criticizes the dominant approach based on legal positivism and has been both Hon. President and Chairman of The Jewish Law Association. He was a founder member of the International Association for the Semiotics of Law, and initiator of its journal.
Jackson studied early Jewish law under David Daube, Regius Professor of Civil Law (Oxford).