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University Assistant Professor; Academic Secretary of the Faculty of Law
Interests
Brian's research interests lie mainly in the fields of property law and family law (broadly conceived), covering jurisdictions including England & Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Scotland. Some of his activities were featured in a Faculty news item.
Brian's first monograph, Informal Carers and Private Law, was published by Hart in December 2012. It concerned the use of private law remedies to support informal carers. The book was awarded one of the University of Cambridge's Yorke Prizes in 2014. A preview of the book is available via Google Books, and its opening chapter can be freely downloaded.
In her review published at [2013] Edinburgh Law Review 436, Professor Nicole Busby described it as "an insightful and valuable book" that is "essential reading for those concerned with law's application to informal care-giving". In the Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Professor Jonathan Herring described it as an "enormously impressive" and "wonderful" book that is "carefully argued with a considerable sensitivity to the legal complexities raised" and provides "an invaluable contribution to the literature". In Social & Legal Studies, Professor Ann Stewart wrote that the book "shines new light on the provision of care in contemporary society", and contains a "careful and detailed analysis of the ways in which such caring is addressed within the conceptual framework of private law" that "provides the reader with an excellent account of the present state of the law but also a new perspective on...wider questions". She found the book "fascinating and a very valuable contribution to the growing literature on carers". For his part, Professor Steve Hedley said in the 2014 Law Quarterly Review that "the author is to be commended for drawing such heterogeneous material together into a coherent whole" and that the book is "an entirely competent and thought-provoking treatment of its subject matter".
In a rather broader review published in the Law and Politics Book Review, Professor Peter Cane described Informal Carers and Private Law as an "important, "innovative", "fine" and "path-breaking" book, "characterised by great analytical care, and a balanced and even-handed approach to normative issues". In Professor Cane's view, it may provide both "a window onto a very different world and an unfamiliar way of thinking about the relationship between public law and private law, the state and the individual" and "interesting and useful material for thinking about the variety of understandings of law and the role of courts in different systems".
In Lent Term 2015, Brian was an Early Career Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) in Cambridge. During that time, he began to expand his work on care through a project entitled "Adult Social Care and Property Rights". More details about the project can be found on the CRASSH website and the University website. Brian has also written blog posts on the subject of his project for the UK Care Guide here and here. He co-ordinated a project entitled "Spaces of Care" with Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe of the Institute of Criminology and Dr Perveez Mody of the Department of Social Anthropology; an associated edited collection was published by Hart. In a review of the volume, Professor Miriam David described it inter alia as "amazingly insightful and expansive, providing [her] with intriguing insights into areas of study and worlds that [she] ha[s] not previously thought to include in studies of care". Brian is also working on a project entitled 'Social Care and the Social Contract', which investigates how philosophical conceptions of the state might affect the appropriate balance between the public and private sphere in the provision and funding of care for elderly and disabled adults. His recent work on care has incorporated the implications of the Coronavirus crisis for care and support provided to disabled adults. He co-authored an Oxford-coordinated report on An Affront to Dignity, Inclusion and Equality: Coronavirus and the Impact of Law, Policy, Practice and Access to Services on People with Disabilities in the United Kingdom, which was the subject of a written parliamentary question. Written evidence drawn from the report was cited by the Parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee.
Brian also publishes on the application of property law in the domestic sphere, the law of succession, the regulation of adult relationships, gender recognition, the law concerning capacity of adults and the law of adoption. His work on adoption was cited by the Supreme Court in In the matter of B (a child) [2013] UKSC 33 and the Scottish Law Commission in its discussion paper on cohabitation. His research on the law of wills was cited by the Law Commission and the Court of Appeal of New South Wales in Mekail v Hana [2019] NSWCA 197. The Irish Department of Children and Youth Affairs cited his work on post-adoption contact, and his work on family provision was cited by the Law Reform Commission of Ireland.
Brian authored the fourth edition of Borkowski's Law of Succession, published in 2020, having also authored the third edition. The book was cited with approval by Lord Burrows in the Privy Council in Jogie v Sealy [2022] UKPC 32, by Nugee LJ in the Court of Appeal in Sangha v Estate of Diljit Kaur Sangha [2023] EWCA Civ 660, and by the Law Commission in its Supplementary Consultation Paper on the law of wills. Brian also edited a collection entitled Landmark Cases in Succession Law. Details of the project can be found on the Cambridge Family Law website and the programme for the associated conference is also available. In her review in the Journal of Equity, Associate Professor Fiona Burns said that the “illuminating book” “makes a substantial contribution to the understanding, review and critique of succession law”, describing it as “mandatory reading for anyone interested in succession law” that would “no doubt” “prove an invaluable resource for academics, students and practitioners”. She noted that “the research sheds fascinating insight on the dramatis personae, social and economic conditions and judicial assumptions at the time the cases were decided”. Brian is currently editing a volume entitled A Research Agenda for Succession Law.
In 2019, Brian hosted a CRC Implementation Project colloquium with Claire Fenton-Glynn on Article 5: Children’s Rights: Families, Guidance and Evolving Capacities. He and Dr Fenton-Glynn edited a special issue of the International Journal of Children's Rights and then a volume containing papers from the colloquium. Professor Nancy Dowd considered it "an extremely valuable collection that exposes the broad array of issues encompassed by Article 5", and described the "valuable contribution of this volume and its invitation to sophisticated analysis of children within a framework that recognises their distinctive rights in relation to parents and the state". She commented that "[t]he value of this volume...is in providing theoretical and exemplar analysis that is critical even for the US in the absence of the CRC", and that it "delivers a rich framework to assess children’s rights and to reorient the scope of parental rights, as well as suggesting further work to elaborate this critical article of the CRC". Brian was also involved in the Children's Rights Judgments project.
Outside the sphere of the law relating to "domestic" life, Brian has written on the law of charities, particularly the status of "private" schools. A video presentation on that topic is available. Brian's current research on charities concerns the relationship between charity law and disability.
While many of the links below require subscriptions, the text of several of Brian's papers is freely available via his SSRN page or Apollo. He has been interviewed by radio and print journalists on adoption, same-sex marriage, relief on divorce, trusts for pets, arranging funerals for children and contact with children in care. He has also recorded some Law in Focus videos and an Inside Family Law video.
Research centres and interest groups
CV / Biography
Brian read for his BA in Law (scholar) and LLM (Wright Rogers scholar, Faculty of Law) at Robinson College. He then took up a W.M. Tapp doctoral studentship at Gonville and Caius College, and his PhD was supervised by Professors Kevin Gray and Jens Scherpe.
After three years as Bob Alexander Fellow at King's College, Brian returned to Robinson in October 2012, where he has taught Equity, Family Law and Land Law. In 2021, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in Property Law at the Faculty, giving lectures in Equity, Land Law and the Law of Succession. Brian has been a visiting academic at the Catholic University of Leuven, the University of New South Wales, Utrecht University, the National University of Singapore and Pepperdine University in California. In autumn 2019, he was a Visiting Fellow at the School of Law, City University of Hong Kong.
Having served as Secretary of the Degree Committee for 2023-24, Brian is currently the Academic Secretary of the Faculty. He is also Vice-Chair of the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group (having previously been Chair), a Deputy Director of Cambridge Family Law Centre, and a member of the Cambridge Centre for Property Law, of the Cambridge Reproduction SRI and of the International Advisory Board of FamRZ; an academic member of the Property Litigation Association and an honorary academic member of the Property Bar Association. He was formerly a member of the University of Cambridge's Board of Scrutiny.
Brian is on Bluesky as @briandsloan.bsky.social, and his Twitter/X handle is @briandsloan; he posts to social media in a personal capacity.
Selected publications
Books
Parental Guidance, State Responsibility and Evolving Capacities: Article 5 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (ed), 2021)
Borkowski's Law of Succession, 2020) 4th Edition
Spaces of Care (with L Gelsthorpe and P Mody) (eds), 2020)
Landmark Cases in Succession Law (ed), 2019)
Informal Carers and Private Law, 2012)
Articles
"Defining a “Qualified Cohabitant” and Other Developments in Ireland" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) 1433 (2023)
"A Bill to Regulate Surrogacy in Ireland" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) 1436 (2022)
"Access to Information for Adopted Persons in Ireland" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) 1443 (2021)
"The 'Chimera' of Parenthood" (2021) 84 MLR 503
"Forfeiture and the Effect of the Wills Act 1837 s 33A" [2021] Conveyancer and Property Lawyer 33
"‘Private’ Schools, their Charitable Status and their Property Rights: Legal Barriers to Attenuation" (2021) 137 LQR 228
"“Easing” Duties and Making Dignity Difficult: COVID-19 and the Care Act 2014" [2021] Public Law 37
"Change and Uncertainty in Irish Family Law" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) 1443 (2020)
"Article 5 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Families, Guidance and Evolving Capacities: Editorial (with Claire Fenton-Glynn) " (2020) 28 International Journal of Children's Rights 439
"Article 5 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Involvement of Fathers in Adoption Proceedings: A Comparative Analysis" (2020) 28 International Journal of Children's Rights 666
"The ‘Social Contract’, Care and Inheritance in England and Hong Kong" (2020) 50 Hong Kong Law Journal 139
"More Reform of Irish Family Law Expected" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) (2019),1500
"A New Approach to Adoption in Ireland" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) 1391, 2018)
"Burdens, Presumptions and Confusion in the Law on Want of Knowledge and Approval" [2017] Conveyancer & Priority Lawyer 440
"2016–2017: A Period for Reform Proposals in Irish Family Law" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) 1461 (2017)
"Wills, Marriage and Cohabitation: The Law Commission’s Consultation Questions" [2017] Family Law 1026
"LawsAndFamilies" [2017] Family Law 679
"Major Reforms to Irish Family Law" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) 1533 (2016)
"Adult Social Care and Property Rights" (2016) 36 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 428
"Family Provision Goes to the Supreme Court" [2016] Family Law 424
"Trusts and Anti-Avoidance under the Care Act 2014" [2015] Conveyancer and Property Lawyer 489
"Adoption Decisions in England: Re B (A Child) (Care Proceedings: Appeal) and Beyond" (2015) 37 Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 437
"Fostering and Adoption as Means of Securing Article 6 Rights in England" (2015) 26 Stellenbosch Law Review 363
"Keeping up with the Jones Case: Establishing Constructive Trusts in ‘Sole Legal Owner’ Scenarios" (2015) 35 Legal Studies 226
"Informal Care and Private Law: Governance or a Failure Thereof?" (2015) 1 Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law 275
"Post-Adoption Contact Reform: Compounding the State-Ordered Termination of Parenthood?" [2014] CLJ 378
"Die gleichgeschlechtliche Ehe in England und Wales (Same-sex Marriage in England & Wales) - translated by Monique Martinek" Das Standesamt (StAZ) 136 (2014)
"Reformen im Familienrecht von England und Wales in 2013: Gleichgeschlechtliche Ehen, Kindschaftsrecht und Todesvermutung ('Reforms in the Family Law of England and Wales in 2013: Same-sex Marriages, Child Law and the Presumption of Death' with JM Scherpe)" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) 1469 (2013)
"Conflicting Rights: English Adoption Law and the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child" [2013] Child & Family Law Quarterly 40
"The Concept of Coupledom in Succession Law" [2011] CLJ 623
"Due Rewards or Undue Influence? – Property Transfers Benefitting Informal Carers" [2011] Restitution Law Review 37
"Post-adoption Photographs: Welfare, Rights and Judicial Reasoning (with Kirsty Hughes)" [2011] Child & Family Law Quarterly 393
"Civil Partnership und nichteheliche Lebensgemeinschaften in Irland ('Civil partnership and Cohabitation in Ireland') (with Jens M. Scherpe)" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) 1451 (2011)
"Unjust Enrichment Claims by Informal Carers" [2011] Elder Law Journal 298
"The Revised Adoption Convention and the Compatibility of National Law on Parental Consent: The English Example" [2010] FamPRA.ch (Die Praxis Des Familienrechts) 585
"Proprietary Estoppel: Recent Developments in England & Wales" (2010) 22 Singapore Academy of Law Journal 110
"Re C (A Child) (Adoption: Duty of Local Authority) – Welfare and the rights of the birth family in ‘fast track’ adoption cases" [2009] Child & Family Law Quarterly 87
"Vorschläge zur Regelung der Rechtsstellung nichtehelicher und gleichgeschlechtlicher Lebensgemeinschaften in Irland ('Reform Proposals concerning Same-sex Relationships and Cohabitants in Ireland') (with Jens M. Scherpe)" Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) 1697 (2008)
Book Chapters
"Parenthood in England and Wales" in C Fenton-Glynn (ed(s)), Comparative Perspectives on Parenthood ), forthcoming
"Family property and entitlement upon death in England and Wales" in M Briggs and A Hayward (ed(s)), Research Handbook on Family Property and the Law , 2024)
"Inequality and Inheritance Law in England and Wales: A Multifaceted Relationship" in J Gardner, A Goymour, J O'Sullivan and S Worthington (ed(s)), Politics, Policy and Private Law, 2023)
"Fathers in Adoption Proceedings" in N Lowe and C Fenton-Glynn (ed(s)), Research Handbook on Adoption Law, 2023)
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