Upcoming Events
18th February 2026
'The Logistical Origins of Freedom of Contract: 1785-1880’
Dr Alec Thompson (Cambridge)
What causes legal change? In this short paper, I propose a novel causal factor in legal history: logistics. I argue the small number of law-makers in the Victorian English legal system helps explain the emergence of liberal contract law. I do so using a mixture of judicial prosopography, quantitative analysis, black-letter doctrinal history, and intellectual history. The victorian judiciary were keenly aware of the law-making potential of their judgments and sought to manage it through pruning case-lines. In the field of contract law, however, the easiest way to prune a case-line is to leave it to the discretion of parties; thus, I argue the logistical demands facing the legal systems also structurally biased certain doctrinal currents. This theory is more ambitious than past doctrinal explanations. Previously, all distinctively legal causes have been restricted to local contexts, such as past case-law, judicial ideology, or idiosyncratic national institutions (the 'internal' history). The wider purpose of this paper is to stimulate interest in the possibility of general legal dynamics which can be applied - like many sociological and economic theories (the 'external' history) - across contexts. I suggest logistical pressure is merely one of these potential dynamics.
19th March 2026
‘From Fiduciary Breach to Motor Finance: Aligning Private Law and Regulatory Standards’
Professor Stephen Bogle, Professor Iain MacNeill, Dr Katarzyna Chałaczkiewicz-Ładna will present papers, with Professor Laura MacGregor (Edinburgh) acting as discussant during this event, co-convened with Glasgow Corporate and Financial Law Research Group
27th March 2026
Seminar on contract theory/comparative law (common law-civil law) (Further details TBA)
Dr Irina Sakharova (Durham)
30th April
Seminar on Unjust Enrichment exploring 'no legal grounds' (Further details TBA)
Dr Susanna Macdonald-Mulvihill (Edinburgh)
Previous Events
14th January 2026
'Public Law and Empire in Inter-War Britain'
Dr Donal Coffey (Maynooth)
How did Empire shape law? In his history of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Dahrendorf identifies 5 ‘E’s’ that were the founding principles: Education, Economics, Efficiency, Equality, and Empire. This final principle, Empire, was, in the inter-War period, a notable characteristic of British Schools of Law. Legal education in the Universities tied into further professional pathways in the Civil Service or as a barrister or solicitor. These were designed to help provide a cadre of legally trained officials who could act for the Empire from the Bahamas to Bengal. This talk aims to explore the nature of British legal education in the inter-War period, and to provide an intellectual history of some of the academics who were involved in teaching law at the time, their imperial backgrounds and the manner in which empire shaped their pedagogy and their legal theories.
21st November 2025
'Lease Contracts and Tax Farming under Nero'
Ward Strengers (University of Munster)
In 58 AD, the emperor Nero famously ordered the tax regulations to be displayed for everyone to see. The significance of that measure can only be understood by one familiar with the concept of tax farming, which was central to the Roman system of taxation. The right to levy taxes in a certain area was conceded by the Roman state, by way of a public auction to the highest bidder. This took the form of locatio conductio, a lease contract.
Tax farming sparks all kinds of questions of private law, for example pertaining to the nature of the individual tax claim, powers of exaction and the practice of subletting of the tax lease. Although a lot has been written on the cooperations in which the tax farmers operated, remarkably less research concentrates on the tax leases themselves. That is all the more necessary now that thanks to Nero’s measure, a number of those tax leases have survived antiquity. Only a few of them have been extensively studied.
Ward's paper aimed to incorporate these new sources from Roman practice in the traditional Roman legal framework, mainly consisting of the Digest and the Code of Justinian, thereby furthering our insight in Roman taxation in general and the legal consequences of the tax leases (leges locationes) especially, all to the background of the fascinating twilight zone between public and private law.
1st October 2025
'The Controversy Around Short-Term Letting in Europe'
This seminar involved two paper presentations to reflect on the contentious regulation of short-term letting (STL), which has recently become a prominent source of political division and social discontent across Europe. This is particularly acute in major tourist destinations such as Edinburgh or Barcelona, among many others, where the rapid growth of STL holiday accommodation over the past decade is widely blamed for the shortage of affordable residential housing. Local community activists have mobilised to demand that the provision of STL be limited or even banned, and landlord associations have responded by campaigning to defend the STL industry. The issue has therefore become a central regulatory concern of public authorities at the local, national and supranational levels, and generated a wave of litigation across Europe that has placed judges at the centre of the controversy.
Papers were presented by Professor Vassilis Hatzopoulos (Professor of EU Law and Policies at Panteion University, Athens, and visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges), Dr Guillem Colom-Montero (School of Modern Languages & Cultures, University of Glasgow) and Professor Toni Marzal(School of Law, University of Glasgow). Responses were given by Dr Bilge Serin (Urban Studies & Social Policy, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow), alongside those from within the School of Law.
9th May 2025
'Franco-Scottish Perspectives on Property, Sustainability, and Land Reform' Workshop
With the Franco-British Lawyers Association
Dr Flora Vern and Professor Maria Fletcher organised a conference on Franco-Scottish Perspectives on Property, Sustainability, and Land Reform, funded by the Private Law Research Group and the Franco-British Lawyers Society. Speakers from across Scotland and France delivered a series of presentations on current topics in land and property law through the overarching theme of sustainability. These sessions included discussions on the human rights aspects of land reform, community rights to buy and sustainable development, forest ownership and governance, and the law on residential tenements in the context of the energy transition. A write up of this event can be accessed here.
30th April 2025
'Making Sense of Private Law Theory' Seminar
Professor Steve Hedley (University College Cork)
On 30th April 2025, Professor Steve Hedley (UCC) delivered to the Private Law Research Group a seminar concerning the current state of private law theory, seeking to provide an approximate map of the approaches in the field with significant support. Professor Hedley aimed to show the Group that, rather than the field being chaotic and lacking cohesion, it was possible to outline a distinct pattern that these theories followed. The resulting picture, something of a ‘theory of theories’, provided a useful summary of the area, and sparked a lively discussion.
10th-11th September 2024
'Capacity in Scots Private Law' Workshop
Sponsored by the Clark Foundation for Legal Education
Dr Stephen Bogle, Dr Alan Brown, and Dr Lesley-Anne Barnes Macfarlane hosted a two-day workshop on Capacity in Scots Private Law at the University of Glasgow, funded by the Clark Foundation for Legal Education. Speakers from universities and civil society organisations across the country were invited to present and lead discussions on different aspects of capacity and some of the key legal, policy, and practical considerations.
28th June 2024
'Overtourism and Local Communities' Seminar
Professor Antonio Marzal and Dr Guillem Colom-Montero organised a multi-panel event on Overtourism and Local Communities as part of the broader ‘Communicating Sustainabilities Conference 2024’. Academics, organisations, and activists across a range of legal and social sciences disciplines were convened to reflect on the impacts of overtourism from different perspectives, including housing, local spaces, cultures, and rights to the city.
1st May 2024
'René Demogue and the Continuous Construction of the Legal Person' Seminar
Professor Vincent Forray (SciencesPo Paris)
Professor Forray led the second seminar in the Private Law Research Seminar series. Professor Forray’s areas of expertise lie in contracts and tort, epistemology of law, law of persons and comparative law, and he has worked extensively on the ways in which purported descriptive accounts of the law play a role in transforming the law itself.
1st May 2024
6th March 2024
'Governance by Contract: The Contractual Consequences of the Private Provision of Public Service' Seminar
Professor Catharine MacMillan (King's College London)
On 6th March 2024, the Private Law Research Group hosted Professor Catharine MacMillan (KCL) who delivered an eye-opening seminar on the phenomena of government bodies ‘contracting out’ their public law responsibilities to private actors. Professor MacMillan set the trend in a historical perspective, tracing its rise during the 1980s all the way to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the seminar detailing the problematic implications of this. Arguing that contract law and public law are founded upon different values, the move away from public services provided by governmental bodies suggests that principles such as natural justice and accountability are hampered by the contractual principles that are based on efficiency and privity. The paper Professor MacMillan’s seminar was based upon has since been published in an edited collection, which can be found here.
23rd November 2023
'10 Years of the Defamation Act 2013' Workshop
6th-7th July 2023
Guest v Guest Modern Law Review Seminar
Sponsored by the Modern Law Review seminar scheme.
5th June 2023
Legal Geography Workshop
This one-day workshop brought together an inter-discipilnary group of researchers to explore the connections between issues of sustainability, land use and housing.
25th May 2023
'Building Families Through Surrogacy: A New Law Report' Workshop
Led by Dr Alan Brown, this workshop brought together academics and practitioners to reflect on and discuss the Law Commission's recent report on surrogacy.
20th April 2023
Book Launch – 'Contract Before the Enlightenment'
Dr Stephen Bogle held the book launch for his new monograph, Contract before the Enlightenment: the ideas of James Dalrymple, Viscount Stair (1619-1695), earlier this year. The afternoon event featured contributions from guests such as Hector MacQueen, Catherine MacMillan, Adelyn Wilson and John Ford, as well as those from internal speakers.
24th March 2023
'Children on the Move' Workshop
Sponsored by the Clark Foundation for Legal Education
Led by Professor Janeen Carruthers, this workshop set out to explore issues affecting children in Scotland who are subject to a change of personal, domestic circumstances, to assess how well they are supported and protected by Scots law. It was generously funded by the Clark Foundation for Legal Education. Read more about the workshop on the Scottish Civil Justice Hub