Private Law and Building Safety

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Matthew Bell (University of Melbourne, Australia) Susan Bright (University of Oxford, UK)

Private Law and Building Safety

Matthew Bell (University of Melbourne, Australia), Susan Bright (University of Oxford, UK), Ben McFarlane (University of Oxford, UK) , Professor Andrew Robertson (University of Melbourne, Australia)

$180

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Hart Publishing
24 July 2025

Series: Hart Studies in Private Law

This collection of essays explores the real-world problem of building safety through the lens of private law.

High profile building failures including the fire at Grenfell Tower, London, England and the collapse of Champlain Towers South, Florida, USA have exposed widespread building safety failures globally. In this book, international experts deploy a variety of different private law perspectives ranging through torts, contract and real property law, to examine building safety failures across the UK, USA, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Italy and Canada. The book offers policymakers, practitioners and scholars ground-breaking consideration of this vital yet under-considered aspect of the building safety crisis, along with new and valuable insights into the nature, limits and utility of private law.

The book shows that private law can be part of the solution to – as well as being part of the cause of – the building safety crisis. Consideration is given to existing legislative and judicial responses to the crisis, offering guidance as to how statutory regimes addressing the building safety problem (such as the Building Safety Act 2022) can best be understood and developed. A central lesson is the need to take an integrated, coherent approach, within and beyond private law. The book also illustrates that an understanding of the causes of, and responses to, the building safety crisis is vital to any theory of private law: private law is unable to fulfil its distinctive and crucial role of ordering our relations, one to another, if we adopt an unduly limited view of the reasons and resources available to it.

The book results from a joint research project by the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford and Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne.

Edited by: Matthew Bell (University of Melbourne Australia), Susan Bright (University of Oxford, UK), Ben McFarlane (University of Oxford, UK), Professor Andrew Robertson (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Imprint: Hart Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781509976607
ISBN 10: 1509976604
Series: Hart Studies in Private Law
Pages: 328
Publication Date: 24 July 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Matthew Bell is Associate Professor of Construction Law at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Susan Bright is Professor of Land Law at the University of Oxford, UK. Ben McFarlane is Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford, UK. Andrew Robertson is Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne, Australia.