W.G. Hart Legal Workshop
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies In this section
The W. G. Hart Legal Workshop is a major annual legal research event organised and hosted by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Over the years this eponymous workshop series, subsidised by funds from the W. G. Hart Bequest, has focused on a wide range of comparative and international legal issues and topical interests.
The W.G. Hart Legal Workshops began in 1981, building on the success of previous Legal Workshops organised at the Institute with support from the Ford Foundation in the early years.
Collected papers from several of the annual Legal Workshops have been published and copies are catalogued and held in the IALS Global Law Library. The Institute has made selected past papers available to researchers in the IALS section of the SAS-Space institutional E-repository.
Walter Gray Hart
Walter Gray Hart (1870-1941) attended Tonbridge School 1883-87. He was admitted a solicitor in February 1894. He studied at the University of London, from which he graduated LL.B. in 1898 (4th in the 1st Class), and LL.D. 1905. He was a tutor and partner in Gibson & Weldon (one of the predecessors of the College of Law) at 27 Chancery Lane. He left Gibson’s in 1912, was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in October 1913 and called to the bar on 26 January 1914. He practised from chambers at 5 New Square and, although he never took silk, appeared in 22 reported cases, the last being Re Mylne [1941] Ch. 204, decided two months before his death. Between 1899 and 1930 he published five articles in the Law Quarterly Review, which are noteworthy for their breadth of historical learning and wide reading. He also published books on equity, most notably A digest of the law relating to private trusts and trustees (London: Law Notes, 1908) which informed discussion on the Trustee Bill 1908 and subsequently the Trustee Act 1925.
W.G. Hart Bequest
Dr W.G. Hart, who was awarded the London University LL.D. in 1905, practised at the Bar for many years until World War II and edited a number of legal works, generously left the residue of his estate to the University. At its meeting on 18th February 1981 the Senate, following the recommendation of the Board of Studies in Laws, resolved that income from the W.G. Hart Bequest Fund be placed at the disposal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies to help finance the annual Legal Workshop and provide for other special needs in the Institute Library.
Accordingly the 1981 Legal Workshop was renamed "the W.G.Hart Legal Workshop" and was subsidised by part of the available funds from the W.G.Hart Bequest Fund.
Hart, Walter Gray
A thesis upon the definition, classification, creation and interpretation of trusts in English law
IALS copy is at Depository 9862