Publication of the week:

ROWENA MEAGER

Monday 27 July 2009 (updated 30 July)

Rowena Meager, "A set-back for the 'village green industry'?", CLJ (Cambridge Law Journal) 2009, 68(2), 281-283.

This comment reflects upon the significance of the recent decision of the Court of Appeal in R (on the application of Kevin Lewis) v. Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council & Anor [2009] EWCA Civ 3 in the context of the development of the relevant legal test contained in section 15 of the Commons Act 2006 which provides for the prescriptive acquisition of recreational rights over land which belongs to another (that is the acquisition of rights by long use), culminating in the registration of a new town or village green. The test requires that the long user be "as of right" which has been judicially interpreted to mean without force, without stealth, without permission. The House of Lords in R (Beresford) v Sunderland City Council added the further requirement that the qualifying user be trespassory, and an earlier decision of the High Court had indicated that deference by the users to the landowner's use of his own land would be relevant. The Redcar decision confirms that whilst deference is not a legal principle it is a matter of fact which will be relevant to determining whether the statutory test for registration under section 15 of the Commons Act 2006 will be met. The comment concludes that the "as of right" test is becoming ever more complex and that it will consequently be increasingly difficult to predict whether or not the test will be met, the likely result of which is increased litigation.

The full text of the article is available on University computers via Westlaw (external link).

Rowena joined Buckingham Law School in September 2008 following successful completion of a pupillage at a leading set of chancery chambers in Lincoln's Inn. Prior to undertaking pupillage she was, for a number of years, a Lecturer in Law at New College, Oxford, for whom she continues to teach the Law of Trusts. Whilst she chose to return to academia as her predominant profession Rowena is also a practising Door Tenant at Harcourt Chambers (Temple, London & Oxford), specialising in real property matters. She has a particular interest in the law relating to the registration of new greens. Rowena has written a number of pieces for publication in the field of both Land Law and Trusts and continues to engage actively in research in a variety of areas of property law.