Our focus

UCL Laws brings together a vibrant group of researchers working on private law, covering obligations, property law, legal history, legal theory, and comparative law.

Publications and events

Members of the Private Law Group have published many highly regarded books and articles. They also organise conferences, lectures, and workshops to share new ideas and build academic capacity in the field.

Our approach

We are committed to rigorous academic study and to fostering dialogue between private law scholars. Our community includes doctrinal analysts, historians, economists, social scientists, legal theorists, and comparativists.

Recent research

Our work has included:

  • Developing new theoretical frameworks in obligations and property law.
  • Studying historical changes in private law and their links to social and economic development.
  • Offering critical insights into key doctrines, such as accessory liability, tort law, unjust enrichment, contract interpretation, trustee liability, pension scheme powers, and private international law.
  • Examining property rules across different jurisdictions, including communal ownership of land.


Engagement and impact

Our members regularly collaborate with judges and legal practitioners. Their research has influenced arguments and decisions in important recent cases, showing the practical impact of our scholarship.

Many faculty members are actively engaged researchers in the private law field, including

To find out more about individual members of the Private Law Group, select a name to visit their profile on the UCL Laws website.

In recent years, UCL Laws has also been fortunate to recruit some outstanding doctoral students whose work has fallen within the private law field. Their contribution to the research environment of the Faculty has been, and continues to be, a highly valued one. Besides the work they have done on their personal research projects they have also helped to organise, and have actively participated in, many conferences, seminars and workshops in the Faculty. Recent graduates from our doctoral programme include:

Current students on our doctoral programme include:

  • Yiran Shi, ‘Justifying Express Trusts’
  • Lucia Williams, ‘Sustainability, Insurance and Law: The Role of Liability in a Time of Polycrisis’
  • Anna Stelle, ‘Philosophical Foundations of the Contractual Doctrine of Duress’
  • Tom Rollins, 'Common mistake and a revival of the equitable jurisdiction'

Each year we organise many lectures, seminars and workshops in the field of private law.

In recent years we have also run conferences on:

We also run an annual workshop to support early-career scholars working in the field of private law. The following scholars have given papers at past workshops:

2013 (on Property) – Michael Ashdown (Oxford), Tatiana Cutts (Oxford), Ying Khai Liew (KCL), Nick Piska (Kent), Rachael Walsh (TCD), Emma Waring (Cambridge)

2014 (on Obligations) – Kim Bouwer (UCL), Andrew Dyson (Oxford), Matthew Dyson (Cambridge), Dorota Leczykiewicz (Oxford), Phillip Morgan (UCL), Solene Rowan (LSE)

2015 (on Property) – Dan Carr (Edinburgh), Amy Goymour (Cambridge), Robin Hickey (QUB), Magda Raczynska (Bristol), Luke Rostill (Oxford), Charlotte Woodhead (Warwick)

2016 (on Obligations) – Sinead Agnew (Cardiff), Rachel Leow (Cambridge), Kelry Loi (NUS / Oxford), Ewan McGaughey (KCL), Paul MacMahon (LSE), Radosveta Vassileva (UCL)

2017 (on Property) – David Foster (KCL), Mark Jordan (Southampton), Emma Lees (Cambridge), Aruna Nair (KCL), Andreas Televantos (Cambridge)

2018 (on Obligations) – Jodi Gardner (Cambridge), Joanna McCunn (Bristol), Nick Sage (LSE), Sandy Steel (Oxford), Nicholas Tiverios (UCL), Gemma Turton (Leicester)

2019 (on Property) - Fabiana Bettini (Oxford), Kate de Contreras (Durham), Sarah Hamill (TCD), Bonnie Holligan (Sussex), Adam Reilly (Coventry), Lizzie Virgo (Cambridge)

[Our 2020 workshop was postponed owing to COVID-19 restrictions]

2021 (on Private Law Theory; this event was the Society of Legal Scholars Annual Seminar for 2021): Leo Boonzaier (UCT), Edit Deutch (KCL), Martin Fischer (UCL), Sarah Hamill (TCD), Jeevan Hariharan (UCL), Pablo Letelier Cibie (Chile), Timothy Liau (NUS), Joaquín Reyes Barros (Universidad Finis Terrae), Nick Sinanis (Monash), Ohad Somech (Tel Aviv), Beth Valentine (North Dakota), Aness Kim Webster (Nottingham), Sally Zhu (Sheffield)

2022 (on Obligations): Niamh Connolly (UCL), Jordan English (Oxford), Rory Gregson (Cambridge), Judith Skillen (Nottingham), Anna Stelle (UCL), Fleur Stolker (Oxford)

2023 (on Property) - Vicki Ball (KCL), Emily Carroll (Birmingham), Stephen Hawes (UCL), Mary Jiyani (Oxford), Joyman Lee (Glasgow), Bróna McNeill (QUB)

2024 (on Private Law Theory): John Enman-Beech (KCL), Maytal Gilboa (Bar-Ilan), Aleksandra Kobyasheva (Oxford), Filippa Ronquist (UCL), Irina Sakharova (Durham), Yan Kai (Tony) Zhou (QMUL)

2025 (on the History of Private Law) - Jonathan Ainslie (Aberdeen), Chathuni Jayathilaka (Bristol), Ciara Kennefick (Oxford), Joshu Majima (Cambridge), Rhiannon Ogden-Jones (Oxford)

There are many opportunities for graduate students wishing to study private law at UCL.

Various private law modules are available on the UCL LLM programme. In recent years these have included:

  • Commercial Remedies
  • EU Contract Law
  • Historical Development of the Common Law
  • International and Commercial Trusts Law
  • International and Comparative Secured Transactions
  • Regulation and Tort
  • Restitution of Unjust Enrichment.

These modules may not all run in any given year. Please check the module page on our website to find out up to date details on availability.

As noted on our 'People' page we currently have a number of PhD students working on private law research projects, funded either by Faculty Research Scholarships or by Peter Birks Scholarships, which are earmarked for the support of PhD students working in this field. For details about the Faculty MPhil/PhD programme and information about the application process and scholarships please go to the MPhil/PhD section of the Study pages on the Faculty website.

About the Committee

The Trust Law Committee was set up in the summer of 1994 as a group of leading academics and practitioners dedicated to researching weaknesses of Trust Law in England and Wales and ways of improving it. The Committee was formerly run under the auspices of King's College London and is now run with the support of the Private Law Group at UCL. Its first Chairman was the retired Chancery Judge, Sir John Vinelott, and its first Deputy Chairman, Professor David Hayton. In 2005 Sir John Vinelott and Professor Hayton were replaced by Sir Peter Gibson and Professor Paul Matthews. In 2012 Sir Peter Gibson was succeeded as Chairman by Sir Terence Etherton, who was himself succeeded by Sir Launcelot Henderson in 2016. Paul Matthews (who is now the Resident Chancery Judge of the Business and Property Courts in Bristol) continues in office as Deputy Chairman. The first Honorary Secretary, Michael Jacobs, who had the original idea of forming the Committee, retired in 1998. He was succeeded by John Dilger, who was succeeded by John Wood, who was succeeded by Henry Frydenson who was, in turn, succeeded by Robin Vos in 2025.

Current Members

Patrons

Sir Timothy Lloyd

Chairman

Sir Launcelot Henderson

Deputy Chairman

His Honour Judge Paul Matthews

Honorary Secretary

Robin Vos

Executive Committee

  • Sir Launcelot Henderson, Chairman
  • His Honour Judge Paul Matthews, Deputy Chairman
  • Robin Vos, Honorary Secretary
  • Sinéad Agnew
  • David Brownbill KC
  • Professor Paul Davies
  • Robert Ham KC
  • Simon Jennings
  • Elspeth Talbot-Rice KC
  • Simon Taube KC

Committee

  • Mark Bridges
  • Adam Cloherty KC
  • Wilson Cotton
  • Martin Day
  • Richard Dew
  • Robin Ellison
  • Martyn Frost
  • Michael Furness KC
  • Sir Peter Gibson
  • Toby Graham
  • Sarah Haren KC
  • Natasha Hassall
  • David Hayton
  • Mark Herbert KC
  • Jonathan Hilliard KC
  • Andrew Hine
  • Ruth Hughes
  • Judith Ingham
  • Michael Jacobs
  • Henry Legge KC
  • Sir Timothy Lloyd
  • Christopher McCall KC
  • Susannah Meadway
  • Charles Mitchell KC (Hon)
  • Arabella Murphy
  • Richard Nolan
  • Hubert Picarda KC
  • David Pollard
  • Penelope Reed KC
  • Daniel Schaffer
  • Geoffrey Shindler
  • Adrian Shipwright
  • Edwin Simpson
  • William Swadling
  • Christopher Tidmarsh KC
  • Robin Vos
  • Sir Nicholas Warren
  • Simon Weil
  • Philip Wood KC (Hon)
  • Dame Sarah Worthington KC (Hon)

Process

Improving the law is, inevitably, a slow process. Over the years, much time has been taken up in Committee Working Parties by the process of clarification of deficiencies in the law and preparation of worthwhile solutions to those deficiencies.

Time is then taken to ensure sufficient informed responses are gathered in response to the proposals in Consultation Papers so that a Report can then be published recommending practical or legislative steps to make trust law work more effectively. About 6,000 copies of Consultation Papers are distributed and the Committee is very appreciative of the responses received from Consultees who are prepared to spend their time facing the issues. 

Members of the Committee then meet members of Government, the Law Commission and other bodies where legislative reform seems required.

Funding

The work of the unpaid Committee is privately funded or supported from several sources, including the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, The Association of Corporate Trustees and Tolley. The Committee is also grateful to the UCL Laws Private Law Group for the support it provides.

Past publications

Consultation papers and reports previously published by the Committee can be accessed here:

Consultation papers

Reports

The London Private Law Theory Discussion Group is a collaboration between UCL, KCL and LSE which provides a forum for academics and PhD students working in private law theory (broadly conceived) to present work in progress in an informal setting. Papers are read in advance by participants and sessions involve a short presentation by the speaker followed by feedback and discussion. If you would like to present a paper to the Group or would like to join the mailing list please contact Prince Saprai (p.saprai@ucl.ac.uk).