Centre for People, Property and Community Hosts Modern Studies in Property Law 2026 Conference
Southampton Law School successfully hosted the 16th edition of Modern Studies in Property Law (MSPL) between 30 March-1 April 2026, which brought together researchers from across the globe. The conference integrated presentations from scholars at the earliest stage of their academic career to senior professors who together follow in MSPL’s tradition of being a world-leading, relaxed and friendly forum for scholars with research interests in property law.
The conference opened on 30 March with a keynote given by Prof John Mee exploring developments in the law of proprietary estoppel – an area of law which continues to pose doctrinal difficulties around the meaning of ‘reasonable reliance’ and how this is satisfied.
Other highlights included the closing keynote panel exploring the future of leasehold in light of the draft Commonhold Reform Bill. The panel deftly brought together the perspectives of a former Law Commissioner, Prof Nick Hopkins (UCL), a practitioner, Philip Rainey KC, and judge, Siobhan McGragh (President, First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber)). The panel discussion reflected on the complexities and dynamics of real people and real property and the disputes arising between them. The spirited discussion considered whether commonhold and the mooted reforms will be the answer for those living in flats. This discussion was recorded and the aim is for this to be made available on the Law School’s YouTube page.
Commenting on the conference, co-organiser Dean Taylor, Lecturer in Law, said “it was a great privilege sharing with my colleagues in organising this conference and putting the programme together. We were keen for the conference to demonstrate the diversity of contemporary property law scholarship and the papers duly delivered, speaking to each other so wonderfully. I am grateful to those who presented and attended and ensured this was such a vibrant and stimulating three days. We also owe a debt of gratitude to our events team for ensuring the conference ran so smoothly.”
Fellow co-organiser Prof Helen Carr, Deputy Head of Southampton Law School (Research), added, “The conference demonstrated the best of contemporary property scholarship – from sophisticated explanations of doctrinal complexity to novel explorations of how property is implicated in the major global challenges of sustainability and AI. It was also very reassuring to see how exciting the future of property law scholarship is, as early-career scholars explore its challenges in innovative ways.”
Prof Lisa Whitehouse, Dr Mark Jordan and Dean Taylor will be co-editing the edited collection of papers selected from the conference with a view to publication by Hart Publishing.
You can view the programme directly here . Photos from the conference can be viewed on the Law School’s Flickr page here .