Sarah Blandy
Email: s.blandy@sheffield.ac.uk
Institution/Organisation: School of Law, University of Sheffield, UK
Position: Professor of Law
Biographical Information: I qualified and practised as a housing solicitor before becoming an academic. I now teach Property Law, and my research is interdisciplinary and empirical, focusing on the law and practice of collectively owning, managing and sharing space. Publications include 'The Dynamics of Enduring Property Relationships' (with Susan Bright and Sarah Nield, 2018); 'Domestic Fortress: Fear and the new home front' (with Rowland Atkinson, 2016); 'Researching Property Law' (with Susan Bright, 2015); ‘Collective Property: Owning and Sharing Residential Space’ (Modern Studies in Property Law, 2013); 'Curbing the power of developers? Law and power in Chinese and English gated urban enclaves' (with Feng Wang, 2013); 'Multi-owned Housing: Law, Power and Practice' (with Ann Dupuis and Jennifer Dixon, 2010).
Authored/ Co-authored Research
Title: Collective Property: Owning and Sharing Residential Space
Published: Modern Studies in Property Law vol 7, ed. N. Hopkins, 152-172.
Funders: British Academy
Author/Co-authors: Sarah Blandy
Keywords: Community, Public/private, Qualitative research/interviews, Sustainability,
Summary:
The aim of this chapter is to examine, using illustrations from a co-housing development, how property is ‘constituted from the bottom up’ by those who live it. It is based on empirical research into how residents share and manage the non-privately owned spaces that they hold in common.
Title: Socio-legal approaches to property law research.
Published: Property Law Review (2014) 3 (3), 166-175
Author/Co-authors: Sarah Blandy
Keywords: Comparative research, Governance, Law,
Summary:
This contribution to the special issue addresses the “what, how, what to be wary of, and why” questions about socio-legal approaches to researching property law. As will become clear, it is not possible to talk about “the” socio-legal approach; this article starts with these definitional difficulties and then discusses the range of research which can be labelled as socio-legal. Following an overview of the challenges faced by the socio-legal researcher, the article concludes by assessing the unique perspective provided by this research approach, with reference to multi-owned properties.
Title: The Dynamics of Enduring Property Relationships in Land
Published: The Modern Law Review (2018) 81(1), 85-113
Author/Co-authors: Sarah Blandy, Susan Bright, Sarah Nield
Keywords: Law,
Summary:
This article proposes a new way of looking at property relationships that will enrich our understanding of how they operate. It focuses on property rights in land which are consensual in origin, although this approach could usefully be applied both to non-consensual property relationships and to other property types. Recognising both the temporal and spatial dimensions of land, the dynamics approach reflects the fact that most property relationships are lived relationships, affected by changing patterns and understandings of spatial use, relationship needs, economic realities, opportunities.
Title: Sharing Property: Multi-owned Property Workshop
Author/Co-authors: Cathy Sherry, Sarah Blandy, Clare Mouat
Keywords: By-laws/rules/CC&Rs, Community, Comparative research, Dispute resolution / courts / tribunals, Governance, Information available to owners and residents, Law, Redevelopment / termination,
Summary:
Multi-owned properties constitute an ever-growing proportion of the world’s commercial and residential building stock. The multiplicity of owners and tenants produces social and legal complexity that many existing legal systems struggle to accommodate. On 29 September 2017, a diverse group of researchers, practitioners, policy and decision makers met to discuss the challenges of multi-owned properties. The themes of the workshop were drawn from the key ideas of ‘Dynamics of Enduring Property Relations’ (Blandy, Bright & Nield 2017). This is a summary of the workshop’s deliberations.