Queering Private Law: Bentham House Conference 2026 at UCL Faculty of Laws, London [Sept 3-4]

Private law presents itself as neutral and technical, a body of rules that simply reflects how the world is. UCL Faculty of Laws puts that claim under pressure at Queering Private Law, a two-day conference held on 3 and 4 September 2026 at Bentham House, London. The organisers argue that private law's foundational concepts carry assumptions about whose relationships, identities and lives count as normal, and the conference brings queer theory into conversation with private law to ask what is revealed when those assumptions are taken seriously rather than treated as inevitable.

The programme gathers scholars working to expose the heteronormative and cisnormative underpinnings of private law doctrine and to ask how queer theory can transform the subject. Papers span contract, tort, equity and trusts, property, corporate law, intellectual property, family law and private international law. Queering Private Law is presented as the Bentham House Conference of 2026-27, the flagship conference of UCL Faculty of Laws, and forms part of UCL200, the university's bicentenary programme.

• Professor Darren Rosenblum, McGill University Faculty of Law (Keynote 1, Day 1)
• Professor Sonia Katyal, UC Berkeley Law (Keynote 2, Day 1)
• Nicholas Allen KC, Deputy High Court Judge, 29 Bedford Row Chambers (Keynote 3, Day 2)

Day 1 runs from 9:45 am to 6:30 pm.

• 9:45-10:00 Arrival; 10:00-10:15 Welcome
• 10:15-11:15 Keynote 1: Darren Rosenblum (McGill University)
• 11:30-12:30 Panel 1, Questioning the cis-tem: Hila Keren (Southwestern Law School) on queering contract law; Marco Poli (University of Turin) on generative property and trans exclusion from gamete disposition in Italian law; Johnny Hardman (University of Edinburgh) on queering corporate law
• 13:30-14:30 Panel 2, Torts: Chiara Mori Passoni (Fundacao Getulio Vargas) on LGBTQ+ discrimination in Brazilian courts; Thomas Kadri (University of Miami) and Brenda Dvoskin (Washington University in St. Louis) on consent creep; Oliver James Francis-Jones (Lincoln's Inn) on defamation law
• 15:00-16:15 Panel 3, IP: Michael Goodyear (New York Law School) on trademark morality bars; Alvaro Fernandez-Mora (King's College London) on paternalism and brand regulation; Susanna Kallio (Hanken School of Economics) on fan fiction and copyright; Andrew Gilden (Southwestern Law School) on trans patents
• 16:40-17:40 Keynote 2: Sonia Katyal (UC Berkeley); 17:40-18:30 Reception

Day 2 runs from 10:00 am to 4:15 pm.

• 10:15-11:15 Panel 4, Families: Alex Maine (City St George's, University of London) and Arnau Nonell (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa) on non-conjugal and non-traditional families; Sam Bannister (University of Nottingham) on the common intention constructive trust; Mihir Rajamane (University of Oxford) on equality law and the public/private divide
• 11:30-12:30 Panel 5, Children: Hannah Hirst (University of Sheffield) on young people's participation in clinical decision-making about gender-affirming treatment; Frederique Joosten (Royal Holloway) on the welfare principle in English child law; Susanna Rossbach (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law) on queering motherhood in Germany
• 13:30-14:30 Keynote 3: Nicholas Allen KC (Deputy High Court Judge, 29 Bedford Row Chambers)
• 15:00-16:00 Panel 6, Normativity across time and space: Jack Enman-Beech (University of Alberta) on the normative conditions of a flourishing queer space; Horatia Muir Watt (Sciences Po) on the shadow version of private international law; Katie Jukes (Manchester Metropolitan University) on queering legal education
• 16:00-16:15 Closing remarks

The conference is ticketed and pre-booking is essential. All rates include catering.

• Standard: GBP 100 for both days, GBP 70 for one day
• Full-time academics: GBP 40 for both days, GBP 28 for one day
• Full-time students: GBP 25 for both days, GBP 18 for one day

Tickets are additionally subject to an Eventbrite booking fee. The refund policy allows refunds up to seven days before the event.

UCL Laws states that the event is open to all. Students, people from underrepresented groups, and those without funding or experiencing financial hardship can apply for a fee waiver by emailing the Queering Private Law team at queering.law@kcl.ac.uk. Reduced rates for students and full-time academics are applied at the point of booking by selecting the relevant ticket type.

The sessions are designed to support professional learning and the conference qualifies for self-certified continuing professional development. UK-based legal professionals may be able to record attendance toward their CPD or continuing competence requirements, subject to their regulator's rules, and participants are responsible for determining eligibility and keeping their own records.

Stated learning outcomes include identifying how core private law doctrines embed assumptions about normativity and identity, evaluating doctrine against equality and human rights obligations, applying queer theory to doctrinal problems and the construction of legal arguments, and recognising areas of doctrinal uncertainty relevant to litigation strategy, advising or policy work.

The conference is co-led by Haim Abraham (UCL), Philip Gavin (UCL), Eden Sarid (King's College London), Andrew Gilden (Southwestern Law School), Michael Goodyear (New York Law School) and Niamh Connolly (UCL), with funding from the British Academy / Leverhulme Trust and UCL Faculty of Laws. It sits within the wider Queering Private Law Project hosted at King's College London.

Book through the official Eventbrite page linked below, selecting the standard, academic or student ticket and the one-day or two-day option. Eventbrite lists ticket availability as running until the conference opens on the morning of 3 September 2026, so places should be booked well before that date. Attendance is in person only at Bentham House; no online mode is offered.