The Old Hall is full tonight. Those outside who turn and see the line of festal light will not know that the windows are illumined by the brilliance of the company within. This audience is indeed most intimidatingly distinguished. These facts do proper honour to the memory of Francis Mann. He would have welcomed too the happy coincidence, given that Lady Fox is in the chair, that we also have the opportunity to celebrate the appointment of one of this century's greatest judges to the Order of Merit. Three such appointments were announced today. I hope we are allowed to think that Lord Denning has succeeded to the place of Sir Isaiah Berlin, one champion of liberty and human dignity following another.

‘Doctrine’, from the legal point of view, is often understood, in France at least, as a collection of works. For example, Le Petit Robert defines it as ‘the entirety of legal works whose aim is to expound or interpret the law (as opposed to legislation and judicial decisions)’. This definition is not erroneous, but it only captures one aspect of the matter. If doctrine were only a collection of works, it would be nothing more than a university or law court library. However, it is clearly much more than that. Likewise, it is clear that poetry cannot simply be reduced to a huge collection comprising the works of all French poets. Beyond the production of doctrine (or poetry) lie the workings of doctrine (or poetry), that is to say the persons who devote themselves to it. It is at this point that one encounters other meanings of the term.

The ability to identify arrangements affecting property as falling within one or other of the recognised categories of proprietary interest, for example tenancies, licences or easements, and as resulting in certain consequences, is not only desirable, but is in the interest of certainty for all concerned essential. If an occupant of land is a tenant, certain known consequences follow: for example, the occupant has statutory protection which would not be the case were he merely a licensee. Again, if I cross your land merely by your permission, my privilege may be withdrawn at any time, whereas if I have an easement to do so, you cannot stop me. Arrangements which do not behave according to the rules, by appearing to create one type of interest while possessing the attributes of another, either undermine the recognised rules or are exceptional cases which must be acknowledged as such.

Racism has climbed the political agenda at national, European and international levels. Reports from national and international non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) and inter-governmental organisations have focused considerable attention on racism and xenophobia and document an increase in racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and race-related activities. As racism has climbed the political agendas, so there has been a substantial increase in the number of national, European and international legal instruments devoted to it. In particular, race-related restrictions on freedom of expression (‘hate-speech’) are increasing and seem likely to continue to do so. Such restrictions give rise to controversy in terms of constitutionality, legal policy and consistency with European and international human rights law. There are also differences of views between the policies of NGO's on restrictions on racist speech.

In January 1995, during the furore over the murder conviction of Private Lee Clegg, the Home Office announced a review of the law of murder as the House of Lords had declared it to be. In March 1996 the Report of the Inter-Departmental Review of the Law on the Use of Lethal Force in Self-Defence or the Prevention of Crime was completed and, if not exactly ‘published’, then at least available to interested members of the public. The review was primarily concerned with the possibility of enacting a partial defence to murder, whereby a soldier or policemen who had used excessive force resulting in the death of a criminal suspect would be convicted only of manslaughter, but the Home Office also examined the possibility of giving statutory authority to the internal Army and police regulations upon the use of firearms, in order to clarify the concept of ‘reasonable force’. In the end, however, the Inter-Departmental Review (hereafter ‘the Review’) proposed no change to the law of murder nor of voluntary manslaughter, and neither did it propose any method of clarifying the concept of ‘reasonable force’.

History, as much as logic, has shaped the English real property law of today. The richness of that history is one of its strengths, but is also a potential source of weakness, as where the boundaries between similar, but distinct rights are neither theoretically nor logically distinguished. Whilst this may often not be of practical concern, none the less a lack of logic may lead to inconsistency or uncertainty in the law (or indeed both). Particularly is this so where social pressures require protection for new situations, as for example where a flat owner requires the certainty that his right to park his car is a proprietary right.

That provides one justification for seeking a strong and consistent theoretical framework. Another is that as we integrate more closely with our European partners, we may be compelled to accept into our thinking concepts which are at present alien to us.

Successful law reform campaigns leave behind a rich history; a story of engagement between activists seeking legal change, opponents who attempt to maintain the status quo, legislators, and the judiciary. The repeal of the provisions of the Tasmanian Criminal Code which prohibited certain private, consensual sexual relations between adults, and which were aimed primarily at male samesex sexual acts, by the state legislature in May 1997, signaled the end of a particularly arduous campaign which lasted several years. What makes this struggle worthy of academic treatment, first, is the simple fact that the gay activist campaign was waged over a plurality of legal and political sites at the state, national, and international levels.