Kevin Gray
University of Cambridge, Law, Faculty Member
- Kevin Gray is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Bencher of Middle Temple, a Fellow of Trinity College and Emeritus P... moreKevin Gray is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Bencher of Middle Temple, a Fellow of Trinity College and Emeritus Professor of Law in the University of Cambridge. He holds the degrees of PhD and LLD from Cambridge and the degree of DCL from Oxford and is a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law (Paris). In his early career he was Drapers’ Professor of Law in the University of London and a Senior Research Fellow of St John’s College Oxford. He has also held numerous fellowships and professorships in Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore and South Africa and was a Major Research Fellow of the Leverhulme Trust during 2008–2011. He has written extensively on property law, legal theory, family law, human rights, and the environment, and is a co-author of Gray and Gray, Elements of Land Law (Oxford University Press). Most of his writings are freely available at http://trin-hosts.trin.cam.ac.uk/fellows/kevingray.edit
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
We live, profoundly, in an age of regulation. Much of this regulatory activity is aimed at the promotion of environmental welfare, a term which I understand as referring not merely to the conservation of natural landscape and protection... more
We live, profoundly, in an age of regulation. Much of this regulatory activity is aimed at the promotion of environmental welfare, a term which I understand as referring not merely to the conservation of natural landscape and protection of the ecosphere, but also to the safeguarding of our cultural, archaeological and architectural heritage. Can environmental regulation amount to a taking of property at common law? That is a straight question; and it deserves a straight answer. The trouble is that, in this area, straight answers are in very short supply.
Proudhon got it all wrong. Property is not theft—it is fraud. Few other legal notions operate such gross or systematic deception. Before long I will have sold you a piece of thin air and you will have called it property. But the ultimate... more
Proudhon got it all wrong. Property is not theft—it is fraud. Few other legal notions operate such gross or systematic deception. Before long I will have sold you a piece of thin air and you will have called it property. But the ultimate fact about property is that it does not really exist: it is mere illusion. It is a vacant concept—oddly enough rather like thin air.