ABOUT

CV highlights

Academic Positions

• I was Director of Research and Professor of Law at Aston University, UK.  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 (see here).

• Before that, I was Reader in Property Law at Oxford Brookes University (2010-2018). 

• At Cambridge University, I was Affiliate Lecturer (2016-17), teaching advanced property subjects on the undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

• I worked on land law issues during periods as Visiting Scholar at Oxford University and later at Cambridge University and Groningen University.

• I taught at the Truman Bodden Law School of the Cayman Islands for fourteen years until 2010 and then returned in 2021. My earlier academic posts were at Durham University and Cardiff University.

Policy Development and Law Reform

Caribbean work: 

• 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 was temporarily appointed as 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 make constructive recommendations to governments and law reform commissions. I ran a comprehensive review and major reform project in a Caribbean territory that had intractable problems with land tenure. My recommendations were enacted and adopted as policy. 

• I was appointed as special adviser to the Law Reform Commission in the Cayman Islands to take the lead in the project on inheritance of property.

• I provided a 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 United Nations contacted me as expert on Caribbean land rights for a briefing ahead of the UN Secretary-General's visit to an island that was experiencing unrest over land conflict between citizens and government. I was able to offer independent advice on the situation. The Secretary-General's final decision matched what I had recommended

• I prepared a comprehensive new manual of registry procedures for the Cayman land registry, part of which has legal force. 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'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 write the Cayman Islands textbook on conveyancing law

• I write the Cayman Islands textbook on land law

• I write the Cayman Islands textbook on inheritance of property

• 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 

• The topics listed above related to matters in Anguilla, Antigua, Barbuda, BVI, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Turks & Caicos Islands

United Kingdom work:

• I am author of Emmet on Title, the number-one multi-volume textbook on land transactions in England. It is widely used by solicitors, barristers and judges (see here). In the last couple of years it has been relied upon by the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and Privy Council.

• Extensive portfolio of published papers in the leading journals: Law Quarterly Review, Legal Studies, Cambridge Law Journal, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, etc.

• I was elected Head of the Property Section of the UK academics’ professional body - the Society of Legal Scholars (2014-19). In that capacity I led the UK academic community in my discipline.

• I was appointed the first academic member of the Users Group of the judicial tribunal dealing with land registration matters.

• I was the first academic member of the Law Reform Committee of the Property Litigation Association (see here). 

• I prepared part of the Property Litigation Association’s draft response to the Competition And Markets Authority’s “Report on Leasehold Housing” (2020) (see here). I also prepared part of the Property Litigation Association’s draft response to Law Commission’s Consultation Paper on “Reinvigorating Commonhold” (2018) (see here).

• I co-chaired the academic symposium on the Law Commission’s Consultation Paper on “Reinvigorating Commonhold” (2018), and I co-authored the ensuing response on behalf of the academic community (see here, p.1510).

• I organised and chaired a working party of the Cambridge Centre for Property Law (see here) to plan a response to the UK Department of Communities & Local Government consultation on the major ‘ground rents’ reform, “Tackling Unfair Practices in the Leasehold Market” (2017). I authored our final report.

• I organised and chaired the collaborative workshop on the Law Commission’s consultation paper on the law of wills, “Making a Will” (2017). I compiled the academic community’s policy response from the speakers’ submissions and I wrote the chapter on attestation (see here).

• I authored a policy submission in response to the U.K. Government consultation, “Land Registry: Moving Operations” (2016).

• I authored the academic community’s policy response to the U.K. Government consultation, “Introduction of a Land Registry Service Delivery Company” (2014) (see here). It concerned the implications of restructuring the land registry, with arguments for particular action by UK Department of Business, which ultimately acted in accordance with the recommendations.

• I organised and chaired a collaborative workshop on the Law Commission’s consultation paper on land registration, “Updating the Land Registration Act” (2014). I compiled the academic community’s reform report, and I wrote the chapter on rectification (see here).

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

• Society of Legal Scholars

• Academic Member of the Property Litigation Association

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

Qualifications

• New York Bar
• 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 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.

Caribbean Reports

• Report on Succession Law Reform: Representation of Estates vol.1 (2025) Cayman Islands Law Reform Commission

• Report on Succession Law Reform: Administration of Estates vol.2 (2025) Cayman Islands Law Reform Commission

• Report on Succession Law Reform: Distribution of Estates vol.3 (2025) Cayman Islands Law Reform Commission

• Report of an Inquiry into Crown Lands in the Turks & Caicos Islands (Aug 2022) UK Foreign Office / TCI Government

• Report on Registry Practice and Legislative Reform (Dec 2008) Cayman Islands Dept of Lands & Survey.

• Report of an Inquiry into Maladministration in the Cayman Islands Land Registry (May 2006) Office of the Cayman Islands Complaints Commissioner.

• Report into Contested Claims to Crown Land Grants (May 2006) Office of the Cayman Islands Complaints Commissioner.