David John Ibbetson FBA is a British legal academic. He was Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Cambridge from 2000 to 2022, and President of Clare Hall from 2013 to 2020.^[1] From 2009 until 2012, he served as the chairman of the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge.^[2] He was General Editor of the Cambridge Law Journal between 2003 and 2009.

David Ibbetson obtained his MA and PhD in Law at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the latter supervised by Professor Sir John Baker. In 1980, he became a Fellow and Tutor in Law at Magdalen College, Oxford. He returned to Corpus Christi in 2000, following his appointment as Regius Professor of Civil Law at the Faculty of Law in the University of Cambridge. He was elected to the British Academy in 2003.^[3] In 2004, he became Warden of Leckhampton House, the College's site for postgraduate students. In August 2013, Ibbetson left Corpus Christi College when he became the eighth President of Clare Hall, Cambridge, succeeding Sir Martin Harris.^[4] He was succeeded by Alan Short as head of Clare Hall in August 2020.^[5]

Ibbetson is originally and primarily an English legal historian, but he is also expert in Roman law and has written comparative works relating to the history of European law. Whilst he has published on a wide range of subjects, his focus has been on the historical relationship between English Common Law and the legal systems and legal thought of the rest of Europe.

• Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History [editor] (2009)
• Sir William Jones, Essay on the Law of Bailments [editor] (2007)
• Common Law and Ius Commune (Selden Society) (2001)
• A Historical Introduction to the Law of Obligations (1999)
• The Roman Law Tradition [editor] (1994)