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Land Law, Equity and Trusts, Family Property (including the Rights and Duties of Cohabitants).
My research work covers three main areas: equity and trusts, family property and the law of real property. My approach is
primarily doctrinal, with a strong comparative dimension. I have broadened my focus in more recent years, to include a consideration
of law reform and related policy issues. I have also begun to concern myself more with legal history in my areas of interest.
An early influential work of mine is The Property Rights of Cohabitees: An Analysis of Equity's Response in Five Common Law
Jurisdictions (Hart, 1999). This comparative work was reviewed in fourteen journals. A flavour of the reviews is provided
by the following extracts: 'a major advance in the literature on cohabitants' property rights' (Elizabeth Kingdom, Edinburgh
Law Review);'an excellent book, thoroughly researched, carefully thought out, and forcefully argued' (Charles Mitchell, King's
College Law Journal); 'a thoroughly worthwhile study ... powerfully argued, engagingly written' (Jo-Ellen Riley Australian
Journal of Family Law); 'a devastating critique ... Mee's demolition of the application of equitable doctrines to the problem
of cohabitation in five jurisdictions is a tour de force' (John Stevens, Restitution Law Review); 'beautifully written ...
informed, reflective and perceptive' (Inge Clissman SC, Conveyancing and Property Law Journal); 'a valuable and lasting contribution
to the literature on the subject' (Robert Chambers, Dublin University Law Journal); 'an essential acquisition for university
libraries' (J Priestly QC, New Zealand Universities Law Review). Also in the equity field, I have published a series of articles
in relation to undue influence and third parties, including a frequently cited piece in the 1995 Cambridge Law Journal, and
more recently a number of chapters in high quality edited collections related to estoppel, constructive and resulting trusts
(including the history of resulting trusts).
As one of a relatively small number of scholars working in my areas in Ireland, there is a strong imperative for me to engage
with the Irish legal system and with the question of law reform in Ireland. A substantial part of my output in recent years
has responded to a recent initiative to modernise the whole system of land law in Ireland (which culminated in the enactment
of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009). The importance of this process for the Irish legal system has led me to
consider a range of different aspects of land law, including issues relating to covenants, easements and profits, words of
limitation, fee tails, priorities, co-ownership and perpetuities. The resulting articles have had considerable impact in terms
of triggering modifications to the proposals of the Irish Law Reform Commission and to the final terms of the 2009 Act. Coincidentally,
a reform process has also taken place in Ireland in relation to another of my primary research interests, the property rights
of cohabitants, leading to the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. I worked also
to try to improve the relevant law reform proposals and a number of my publications contributed to the modification of the
original Bill as it progressed through parliament (e.g. in terms of a major overhaul of the succession provisions in relation
to cohabitants).
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