On 6 March 2026 Professor Susan Bright (University of Oxford) delivered the 2026 XXIV Old Buildings Lecture entitled "New Housing, Old Rules: Can Land Law Keep up?".

In recent years, more than 80% of new housing estates developed by large housebuilders include amenities that are not adopted by the relevant statutory bodies. As a result, roads, public play areas, drainage systems, and other shared facilities are maintained by private management companies, with the costs passed on to homeowners. Yet, as Lord Templeman famously observed in Rhone v Stephens (1994), every student of real property law learns at an early stage that positive covenants affecting freehold land do not run with the land and are enforceable only against the original covenantor. How, then, are successive homeowners made to contribute to these ongoing obligations?

This lecture examines the 'ways and means' employed by conveyancers to ensure that such covenants bind successors in title and evaluates whether these mechanisms achieve satisfactory outcomes, both in terms of legal effectiveness and their broader implications for contemporary notions of homeownership.

Timings:

1. Professor Graham Virgo - Introduction: 00:00
2. Professor Susan Bright: 01:31

The XXIV Old Buildings Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by XXIV Old Buildings.

More information about this lecture is available from the Private Law Centre website:

https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events

On 28 February 2025 The Rt. Hon. Lord Briggs of Westbourne delivered the 2025 XXIV Old Buildings Lecture entitled "Equitable Ownership".

Michael Townley Featherstone Briggs, Lord Briggs of Westbourne became a Justice of the Supreme Court in October 2017.

Lord Briggs grew up around Portsmouth and Plymouth, following his naval officer father between ships, before spending his later childhood in West Sussex. He attended Charterhouse and Magdalen College, Oxford. A keen sailor and the first lawyer in his family, he practised in commercial and chancery work before being appointed to the High Court in 2006. He was the judge in charge of the extensive Lehman insolvency litigation from 2009 to 2013.

Lord Briggs was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2013. He was the judge in charge of the Chancery Modernisation Review in 2013, and led the Civil Courts Structure Review in 2015 to 2016. In January 2016 he was appointed Deputy Head of Civil Justice.

Timings:

• Professor Graham Virgo - Introduction: 00:00
• The Rt. Hon. Lord Briggs of Westbourne: 02:07

The XXIV Old Buildings Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by XXIV Old Buildings.

More information about this lecture is available from the Private Law Centre website:

https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events

On 23 February 2024 Professor Lusina Ho (University of Hong Kong) delivered the 2024 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Re-imagining the Express Trust".

Lusina Ho is Harold Hsiao-Wo Lee Professor in Trust and Equity at the Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong. While pursuing her teaching and research in Trust, Restitution, and Comparative Trust Law (in particular Chinese Trust Law), she has been consulted by the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the enactment of the Chinese Trust Law and the Government of the Hong Kong SAR on the reform of the Trustee Ordinance. In 2019, she has successfully convinced the Hong Kong SAR Government to launch a trust service for special needs individuals in the territory.

She has published widely and her work has been cited in highest appellate courts in common law jurisdictions, and has been translated and published in Japanese. She received from HKU the Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2006, the Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017, the Faculty Knowledge Exchange Award in 2018, and the University Knowledge Award in 2018.

Timings:

• Professor Lionel Smith - Introduction: 00:00
• Dr Sinead Agnew - Introduction: 04:23
• Professor Lusina Ho: 07:00
• Dr Brian Sloan - Thanks: 50:15

The Cambridge Freshfields Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

More information about this lecture, including a transcript and photographs from the event, is available from the Private Law Centre website:

https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/CambridgeFreshfieldsLecture