Professor Sarah Nield LLB Solicitor
Professor of Property Law
Professor Sarah Nield is Professor of Property Law within Southampton Law School at the University of Southampton.
She studied at University College London before becoming a solicitor practicing in London. Sarah then moved to Hong Kong for 12 years where she was in practice as solicitor prior to moving into academia at the University of Hong Kong. Since returning to the UK she has worked at the University Southampton with a brief spell at the University of Bristol. Her research interests lie primarily in the fields of property law and equity, as well as company and commercial law. She has published widely in her areas of interest – see publications. Sarah teaches Land Law as part of the undergraduate programmes and offers LLM options in Business Finance and Ship Finance.
Her current research work focuses on the horizontal impact of human rights, the dynamics of property relations and security interests in property, both to support residential and corporate lending.
In relation to human rights her work examines the impact of human rights upon property principles primarily through Article 1 Protocol 1 and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). At the present time she is exploring rights based influences on securing disability adaptions to property as well as approaches to the horizontal impact of the ECHR upon contractual and property relations.
Sarah is working on a collaborative level with others to contribute to theoretical insights into property to recognise the multi-faceted and dynamic nature of lived property relations which can accommodate flex and adaption over time. This work builds on her work on residential lending secured on the home and its wider interface with the financial services sector and housing policy.
In relation to corporate lending her work considers security for loan capital and its role in the insolvency process. She is a member of the Secured Transactions Project which is formulating reform proposals to this area.
Having worked and practiced in Hong Kong, she is also interested in Hong Kong Land Law and comparative approaches to property. Sarah was born and brought up close to Southampton in the New Forest and now that she is back living in the New Forest, she has also researched into the regulation of common land and its role in conservation.