Waddams was born in Woking, England, and moved to Canada as a teenager in 1959.^[2] He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. As a law student, he was editor-in-chief of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review in 1968.^[3] Waddams earned a Master of Arts and PhD from the University of Cambridge, followed by a Master of Laws and Doctor of Juridical Science from the University of Michigan Law School.

Waddams' specialty was contract law and he published seven books on it and other private law topics.^[4] In 1988, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.^[5] From 1988 to 1989, he was a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.^[6]

Waddams died on May 27, 2023, at the age of 80.^[2]

• Products Liability (Carswell, Toronto, 1974; subsequent editions in 1980, 1993, and 2002).
• The Law of Contracts (Canada Law Book, Toronto, 1977; subsequent editions in 1984, 1993, 1999, and 2005).
• Introduction to the Study of Law (Carswell, Toronto, 1979; subsequent editions in 1983, 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2004).
• The Law of Damages (Canada Law Book, Toronto, 1983; subsequent editions in 1991, 1997, and 2004).
• Law, Politics, and the Church of England: the career of Stephen Lushington, 1782 - 1873 (Cambridge University Press, 1992).
• Sexual Slander in Nineteenth-Century England: Defamation in the Ecclesiastical Courts, 1815–1855 (University of Toronto Press, 2000).
• Dimensions of Private Law: Categories and Concepts in Anglo-American Reasoning (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• Principles and Policy in Contract Law: Competing or Complementary Perspectives? (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
• Sanctity of Contracts in a Secular Age: Equity, Fairness and Enrichment (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

• University of Toronto bio
• SSRN profile