6:00 p.m. Registration and welcome drinks
6:30 p.m. Lecture
7:30 p.m. Reception

Notre Dame London Law at 50 Expert Series continues with Hector MacQueen's lecture 'Ae Fond Kiss: A Private Matter?' discussing privacy and confidentiality in the development of so-called ‘common law copyright’ in Britain.

The origins of modern copyright law lie in the eighteenth century, and in particular in the Statute of Anne 1710 (significantly, passed not long after the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707). A vexed question in both England and Scotland was whether unpublished works, which lay outside the scope of the 1710 Act, were nonetheless protected under the respective common laws and, if so, what the basis for that protection might be. In 1804, a case came before the Scottish Court of Session in which the question was whether love letters written by the poet Robert Burns to his inamorata Nancy McLehose 15 years before were publishable without the consent of Burns’ publishers (who held the copyrights in Burns’ published work) or his family (Burns having died in 1796). The would-be publisher claimed that he had the permission of the unidentified addressee of the letters (Burns and Nancy having written to each other as ‘Sylvester’ and ‘Clarinda’ respectively), but she was not a party to the action (although one of the judges was her cousin and guardian). The arguments before the court, and its ultimate decision in favour of the Burns family, reveal much about attitudes to the publication of private correspondence as well as the significance of ideas about privacy and confidentiality in the development of so-called ‘common law copyright’ in Britain.

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About Hector MacQueen

Hector MacQueen is Professor of Private Law at the University of Edinburgh and has just stepped down as a Scottish Law Commissioner, having been in that post since September 2009. His research interests include the law of obligations (especially contract), intellectual property, and the history of law, especially in Scotland.