Tuesday 5th February 2013 | 6.30pm | NAB 1.04
LEGAL BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
'Mrs Burns: Is this your Life?'
Speakers: Dr Dawn Watkins (Lecturer in Law, University of Leicester) and Mrs Valerie Burns
The seminal case of Burns v Burns [1984] Ch 317 saw the Court of Appeal refuse to uphold Valerie Burns’ claim that she was entitled to an interest in her former North London home, which was owned solely by her partner, Patrick Burns. This was a harsh outcome for Mrs Burns, since although she and Mr Burns had never married, they had been living together since 1961, and she had dedicated much of her life to maintaining the home and to bringing up the couple’s two children. Valerie Burns has thus become something of an iconic figure among lawyers who argue for reform in the law relating to cohabitants which, in spite of an enormous increase in the number of cohabiting couples, would likely produce the same outcome were Burns v Burns argued today. In this seminar, Dawn Watkins will describe the research project that led to her finding the ‘real’ Mrs Burns, before speaking to how Mrs Burns and her story have been constructed through the many written sources that refer to this famous case. Valerie Burns will then respond, explaining the story from her own point of view.
Tuesday
12 February 2013 | 5pm-7.30pm | Moot
Court Room, and 8th Floor NAB
'Pitfalls of Judicial Biography'
LEGAL BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
'Reason and Imagination: the selected correspondence of Learned Hand'