ABOUT
ABOUT
Hi, I'm Professor Simon Cooper
I've been working with Caribbean land law and land registration systems for three decades.
I've enjoyed working on all sorts of practical problems on Caribbean land law and law registration. Some of these practical problems were referred to me in relation to specific disputes, others were structural issues with the law which I have identified as needing reform.
Over the years I have accumulated an in-depth knowledge of the land registration system operating in these countries:
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Barbados
- Belize
- British Virgin Islands
- Cayman Islands
- Montserrat
- St Lucia
- Turks and Caicos Islands
There are also some other countries with different land systems where I can bring my broader knowledge of land law:
- Bahamas
- Bermuda
- Dominica
- Jamaica
- St Kitts Nevis
- Trinidad
Land law is the topic of Caribbean land law that I work with. I have experience in title matters, registration, cadastral adjudication, boundaries, co-ownership, partition, easements, mortgages and debentures, foreshore, beaches, crown land, strata titles, escheat, highways, public access rights, and many others
In my land law work, I've been able to assist firms and institutions in several ways:
- consultancy to law firms in land litigation
- legal opinions for government
- briefings for land registrars
- presenting to policymakers
- advising on law reform
CV highlights
Academic Positions- I was Professor of Property Law at Aston University, UK, and Director of Research. I held Visiting Professorships at the Institute of Law Jersey and Stetson University Florida. I'm a Fellow of the Cambridge University Centre for Property Law.
- Before that, I was Reader in Property Law at Oxford Brookes University (2010-2018). I was Affiliate Lecturer at Cambridge University (2016-17), teaching advanced property subjects.
- I worked on land law issues during periods as Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, Cambridge University and Groningen University.
- I was Senior Lecturer, Cayman Islands Law School, where I worked for fourteen years. My earlier academic posts were at Durham University and Cardiff University teaching land law.
Consultancy and Policy Advice
Caribbean work:
- I've provided consultancy for various law firms on land disputes. This included research and advice on litigation over unregistered rights, overriding interests, boundaries, foreshore and accretion, easements, strata titles, public road closures, crown land, etc
- I've supported governments through written legal opinions and research memoranda for crown counsel on a wide range of land law matters, including boundaries, squatters, escheat, bona vacantia, etc
- I have helped to hold ministers and public servants to account by advising on land law points for judicial review applications and freedom of information requests
- I make recommendations to governments and law reform commissions. I recently ran a comprehensive review and major reform project in a Caribbean territory that had intractable problems with Crown land and my recommendations are now being enacted. I was appointed as special adviser to the law reform commission in another territory to take the lead in a project on property inheritance. I provided a critical report for the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union proposals to create a single centralised and digitised land registry. I reported to the Cayman Islands ministry on reforms to public beach access and recreation rights
- The UN contacted me for a briefing on a Caribbean island that was experiencing public unrest over disputed Crown land
- I was appointed as temporary Ombudsman on two occasions to run official inquiries into property issues. They involved probing allegations of Caribbean land registry maladministration and flawed ministerial grants of Crown land. These were front page news as they were instigated by the Leader of the Opposition and made allegations involving the Premier
- I prepared a comprehensive new manual of registry procedures for a land registry which was issued as delegated legislation. I have also created briefing guides at the request of land registrars on problematic areas. These included compensation claims, fraud, overriding leases, strata issues, partition hearings, seabed reclamation, etc
- I write the main text for real estate law in the Cayman Islands
United Kingdom work:- I am author of Emmet on Title, the number one multi-volume textbook on land matters in England for use by solicitors and barristers and which is regularly cited by judges.
- I led the UK legal academic community's report to the UK government on reform to the law of wills.
- I chaired the UK legal academic working party's report to the UK government on ground rents reform and abuses in the leasehold sector.
- I led the UK legal academic community's report to the UK government consultation on reform to service delivery by the land registry.
- I chaired the UK legal academic community's response to the UK government consultation on reform to the Land Registration Act.
- I reported to the UK government on proposed reforms to move land registry operations to the private sector.
Professional Memberships- Solicitor of England and Wales (non-practising)
- Attorney and Counselor of the Bar of New York
- Honorary Member of the Property Bar Association
- Head of the Property Section of the UK academics’ professional body, the Society of Legal Scholars (2014-18)
- Academic Member of the Property Litigation Association
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Qualifications- New York Bar Exam
- LPC : BPP University
- PhD : Newcastle University (Caribbean land registration law)
- LLM : Northumbria University (Caribbean land transfer law)
- MPhil : Cardiff University (land law)
- LLB : Cardiff University
Expert Reviewing - Guest Editor of the UK’s leading property law journal, The Conveyancer.
- Editorial board member of the Caribbean Law Review for many years.
- Peer reviewer in land law for the main journals: The Conveyancer, Modern Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Modern Studies in Property Law, Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, and others.
- I was Professor of Property Law at Aston University, UK, and Director of Research. I held Visiting Professorships at the Institute of Law Jersey and Stetson University Florida. I'm a Fellow of the Cambridge University Centre for Property Law.
- Before that, I was Reader in Property Law at Oxford Brookes University (2010-2018). I was Affiliate Lecturer at Cambridge University (2016-17), teaching advanced property subjects.
- I worked on land law issues during periods as Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, Cambridge University and Groningen University.
- I was Senior Lecturer, Cayman Islands Law School, where I worked for fourteen years. My earlier academic posts were at Durham University and Cardiff University teaching land law.
Caribbean work:
- I've provided consultancy for various law firms on land disputes. This included research and advice on litigation over unregistered rights, overriding interests, boundaries, foreshore and accretion, easements, strata titles, public road closures, crown land, etc
- I've supported governments through written legal opinions and research memoranda for crown counsel on a wide range of land law matters, including boundaries, squatters, escheat, bona vacantia, etc
- I have helped to hold ministers and public servants to account by advising on land law points for judicial review applications and freedom of information requests
- I make recommendations to governments and law reform commissions. I recently ran a comprehensive review and major reform project in a Caribbean territory that had intractable problems with Crown land and my recommendations are now being enacted. I was appointed as special adviser to the law reform commission in another territory to take the lead in a project on property inheritance. I provided a critical report for the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union proposals to create a single centralised and digitised land registry. I reported to the Cayman Islands ministry on reforms to public beach access and recreation rights
- The UN contacted me for a briefing on a Caribbean island that was experiencing public unrest over disputed Crown land
- I was appointed as temporary Ombudsman on two occasions to run official inquiries into property issues. They involved probing allegations of Caribbean land registry maladministration and flawed ministerial grants of Crown land. These were front page news as they were instigated by the Leader of the Opposition and made allegations involving the Premier
- I prepared a comprehensive new manual of registry procedures for a land registry which was issued as delegated legislation. I have also created briefing guides at the request of land registrars on problematic areas. These included compensation claims, fraud, overriding leases, strata issues, partition hearings, seabed reclamation, etc
- I write the main text for real estate law in the Cayman Islands
- I am author of Emmet on Title, the number one multi-volume textbook on land matters in England for use by solicitors and barristers and which is regularly cited by judges.
- I led the UK legal academic community's report to the UK government on reform to the law of wills.
- I chaired the UK legal academic working party's report to the UK government on ground rents reform and abuses in the leasehold sector.
- I led the UK legal academic community's report to the UK government consultation on reform to service delivery by the land registry.
- I chaired the UK legal academic community's response to the UK government consultation on reform to the Land Registration Act.
- I reported to the UK government on proposed reforms to move land registry operations to the private sector.
- Solicitor of England and Wales (non-practising)
- Attorney and Counselor of the Bar of New York
- Honorary Member of the Property Bar Association
- Head of the Property Section of the UK academics’ professional body, the Society of Legal Scholars (2014-18)
- Academic Member of the Property Litigation Association
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
- New York Bar Exam
- LPC : BPP University
- PhD : Newcastle University (Caribbean land registration law)
- LLM : Northumbria University (Caribbean land transfer law)
- MPhil : Cardiff University (land law)
- LLB : Cardiff University
- Guest Editor of the UK’s leading property law journal, The Conveyancer.
- Editorial board member of the Caribbean Law Review for many years.
- Peer reviewer in land law for the main journals: The Conveyancer, Modern Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Modern Studies in Property Law, Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, and others.
Barbados - A storm brewing over Carlisle Bay
(named after the Earl of Carlisle, feudal overlord in 1629)
where I was giving a conference paper
at the University of the West Indies
on creditor's rights against a deceased person's land.
Publications
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My books on Caribbean land law issues:
This is an in-depth study and analysis of some of the hardest issues in Caribbean land registration regimes:
“Perspectives on Cayman Islands Land Titles”
(2008 CILS Academic Press), 388 pages
This is the leading statement of real estate law and practice in one Caribbean territory which is in everyday use by practitioners and cited frequently in court:
“Real Estate Law and Practice in the Cayman Islands” 4th edition
(2019, Cyclura Press), 595 pages.
“Conveyancing Law and Practice in the Cayman Islands” 3rd edition
(2010, CILS Academic Press), 599 pages.
“Conveyancing Law and Practice in the Cayman Islands” 2nd edition
(2006, CILS Academic Press) 395 pages.
“Conveyancing Law and Practice in the Cayman Islands”
(2004, CILS Academic Press) 331 pages.
My publications on Caribbean land law issues
“Good Governance and Crown Lands”
in L. Smith “Surveying the Past, Mapping the Future” (Cambridge Scholars, 2016).
“Privilege and Equality amongst Testamentary Creditors”
(2012) 41 Common Law World Review 322-353.
“Partition of Land in the Commonwealth Caribbean”
(2010) 39 Common Law World Review 283-310.
“Guardianship and Dealings with Infants’ Lands”
(2009) Caribbean Law Review 66.
“Payment of Price and Transfer of Title”
(2009) Caribbean Law Review 31-41.
“Lifetime Occupation Rights”
(2009) 34 West Indies Law Journal 59-82.
“The Land Registrar’s Powers of Correction”
(2006) 31 West Indies Law Journal 1.
“Professional Standards in Conveyancing Searches”
(2006) 16 Caribbean Law Review 36-58.
“Title Information Sources in the Cayman Islands”
(2005) 15 Caribbean Law Review 1-21.
“Equity and Unregistered Interests in Commonwealth Land Systems”
(2004) 3 Oxford University Journal of Commonwealth Law 201-224.
“Interests in Land under the Registered Land Law”
(2004) 29 West Indies Law Journal 85-107.
“Public and Private Guarantees of Title”
(2000) 10 Caribbean Law Rev 10-29.
“Implied Easements in the Commonwealth Caribbean”
(2000) 25 West Indies Law Journal 71-92.
“Registered Title and Equitable Claims”
(1998) 23 West Indies Law Journal 126-130.
“Land Registration and Proprietary Estoppel”
(1996) 6 Caribbean Law Review 478.
“Indemnity in Land Registration Statutes of the British Overseas Territories”
(1996) 21 West Indies Law Journal 1-24.
“Indefeasibility of Title in the British Dependent Territories”
(1995) 20 West Indies Law Journal 22-30.
... and many more!
My scholarly papers on land law issues elsewhere:
“Indemnity and Alteration of the Register”
[2023] The Conveyancer 130-133.
“Obligations as Incidents of Ownership”
[2022] The Conveyancer 131-150.
“Register entry pursuant to a court order subsequently set aside”
[2019] The Conveyancer 59-67.
“Discretion in Property Law: A Study of Judicial Correction of Title”
(2018) 38 Legal Studies 1-23.
“Correction of the Register and Mistake by Omission”
[2018] The Conveyancer 225-243.
“Interests, Powers and Mere Equities in Modern Land Law”
(2017) 37 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 435-460 (with E. Lees).
“Editorial: Seller Fraud and Conveyancer Liabilities”
[2017] The Conveyancer 325-329.
“Resolving Title Conflicts in Registered Land”
(2015) 131 Law Quarterly Review 108-131.
“Regulating Fallibility in Registered Land Titles”
(2013) 72 Cambridge Law Journal 341-368.
“Lack of Proper Care in Registered Land”
in A. Goymour et al. “New Perspectives in Land Registration” (Hart, 2017).
“Removing Title Blemishes as a Function of Registration”
in A. Wudarski, “Das Grundbuch im Europa des 21. Jahrhunderts” (Duncker Humblot, 2016).
“Registered Title and the Assurance of Reliability”
in W. Barr “Modern Studies in Property Law” 8th edition (Hart Publishing, 2015) 308-330.
“Removing Defects in Title as a Function of the Land Register - Comparative Perspectives”
[2015] Rejent (in Polish) (with A. Wudarski).
“The Versatility of State Indemnity”
in M. Dixon “Modern Studies in Property Law” 5th edition (Hart Publishing, 2009), 35-60.
“The Nature of the Beneficiary's Interest in the Administration and Distribution of an Estate”
(1995) 17 Liverpool Law Review 69-81 (with M Thomas).
“Creditors’ Remedies and Execution Against Land”
[1995] Journal of Business Law 384-397.
