Re-imagining Land Law

Confirmed speakers:

• Professor Nicholas Hopkins, Law Commissioner for Property, Family and Trusts Law
• Adam Baker, University of Leeds, School of Law
• Graham Ferris, Nottingham Law School
• Martin George, University of Leicester, Law School
• Professor Antonia Layard, University of Bristol, Law School
• Professor Ben McFarlane, UCL, Faculty of Laws

It is a truth universally acknowledged that land law is dry, boring and to be overcome rather than studied. And yet despite such low expectations land law provides one of the clearest opportunities to consider the cultural and political context of legal regulation and to develop an insight and criticality about the basic principles of these legal systems in students…. one of the main aims of an LLB degree programme.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s announcements regarding SQE content have again thrown the teaching of land law into the spotlight. Should the relationship of land law to legal practice have any bearing on the land law curriculum? If so, what is that bearing and how might it change the content and method of teaching land law?

Should we put the SQE to one side and teach land law in a more overtly political, theoretical and socio-legal manner? And, if so, how might we go about this? Or, is land law better taught through black letter doctrine? At this one day workshop the Centre for Professional Legal Education and Research (CEPLER) at Birmingham Law School will be asking: is it time to re-imagine the teaching of land law?