The Hamlyn Trust owes its existence today to the will of the late Miss Emma Warburton Hamlyn of Torquay, who died in 1941 at the age of eighty. She came of an old and well-known Devon family. Her father, William Bussell Hamlyn, practised in Torquay as a solicitor and JP for many years, and it seems likely that Miss Hamlyn founded the trust in his memory. Emma Hamlyn was a woman of strong character, intelligent and cultured, well-versed in literature, music and art, and a lover of her country. She travelled extensively in Europe and Egypt, and apparently took considerable interest in the law and ethnology of the countries and cultures that she visited. An account of Miss Hamlyn by Professor Chantal Stebbings of the University of Exeter may be found, under the title ‘The Hamlyn Legacy’, in volume 42 of the published lectures. Miss Hamlyn bequeathed the residue of her estate on trust in terms which it seems were her own. The wording was thought to be vague, and the will was taken to the Chancery Division of the High Court, which in November 1948 approved a scheme for the administration of the trust. Paragraph 3 of the scheme, which follows Miss Hamlyn’s own wording, is as follows:
The object of the charity is the furtherance by lectures or otherwise among the Common People of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of the knowledge of the Comparative Jurisprudence and Ethnology of the Chief European countries including the United Kingdom, and the circumstances of the growth of such jurisprudence to the Intent that the Common People of the United Kingdom may realise the privileges which in law and custom they enjoy in comparison with other European Peoples and realising and appreciating such privileges may recognise the responsibilities and obligations attaching to them.
At present there are eight Trustees:
Professor Avrom Sherr, University of London (Chair)
Professor Gordon Anthony, Queen’s University Belfast
Dame Laura Cox QC
Professor Alex Batesmith, University of Leeds
Professor Jane Mair, University of Glasgow
Mr Joshua Rozenberg KC (Hons)
Professor Rebecca Probert, University of Exeter
Professor Thomas Watkin, Bangor University
From the outset it was decided that the objects of the Trust could be best achieved by means of an annual course of public lectures of outstanding interest and quality by eminent lecturers, and by their subsequent publication and distribution to a wider audience. The first of the Lectures were delivered by the Rt Hon. Lord Justice Denning (as he then was) in 1949. Since then there has been an unbroken series of annual Lectures published until 2005 by Sweet & Maxwell and from 2006 by Cambridge University Press. A complete list of the Lectures may be found on pages xi–xv. Recent lecture series may also be found care/of the Hamlyn Trust website at the University of Exeter, after a 5 year interim, courtesy of the CUP. Between 2005 and 2019 the Trustees decided to supplement the Lectures with an annual Hamlyn Seminar, which was normally held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in the University of London, to mark the publication of the Lectures in printed book form. The Trustees have also, from time to time, provided financial support for a variety of projects which, in various ways, have disseminated knowledge or have promoted a wider public understanding of the law. This, the seventy-sixth series of lectures, was delivered by Professor Richard Moorhead at the University of Exeter on 30th October 2025 Chaired by Baroness Brenda Hale of Richmond, at the University of Leeds on 6th November 2025 Chaired by Paul Gilbert and at University College London on 13th November 2025 Chaired by Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom. The Board of Trustees would like to record its appreciation to Richard Moorhead, the three Chairs and also to the three institutions which generously hosted these Lectures, together with the Trust.
Professor Avrom Sherr
Chair, Hamlyn Trust
Open access