Third Ole Lando Memorial Lecture by Prof Hector MacQueen – Closing Remarks by ELI President

29.09.2021

On Wednesday, 29 September 2021, ELI President Prof Pascal Pichonnaz gave closing remarks at the Third Ole Lando Memorial Lecture. This year's lecture was delivered by Prof Hector MacQueen of the University of Edinburgh.

The Ole Lando Memorial Lecture series was launched in 2019 in memory of Danish professor Ole Lando (1922–2019). Prof Lando was a Founding Member of ELI and a leading private international lawyer. Among many achievements of his long and varied career were the ‘Principles of European Contract Law’ which have been highly influential in the development of both EU and national contract laws.

The first lecture in the series was given by Prof Hugh Beale at the Copenhagen Business School Law Conference in October 2019. In 2020, ELI had the honour of hosting the second Ole Lando Memorial Lecture at its Annual Conference, a tradition that will continue every two years. The Second Lecture by Prof Christian von Bar, entitled ‘Contract Law and Human Dignity’, focused on aspects of contract law that are directly affected by fundamental and human rights law. A video on the lecture is available here. A text is also available here.

The Third Ole Lando Lecture, which took place remotely, was opened by ELI Member Prof Matthias Storme (University of Leuven) and delivered by Prof Hector MacQueen on 29 September 2021. In his paper entitled ‘European Contract Law in the Post-Brexit and (Post?)-Pandemic United Kingdom’ Prof MacQueen analysed issues of changed circumstances in the context of Covid-19 measures in contracts under Scots and English law. He showed the contrast between the very flexible approach under Scots law, based on the good faith principle and on implicit conditions, and the very strict approach under English law. Among other issues Prof MacQueen referred to were the consequences of Brexit on the lease contracts of EU agencies and changed circumstances as well as the impact of European contract law on English contract law, including aspects of good faith in English contract law. This was followed by a Q&A session, after which Prof MacQueen unveiled that he had nominated Prof Christina Ramberg (Stockholm University) to give the Fourth Ole Lando Lecture.

ELI President Prof Pascal Pichonnaz gave the closing words and invited those present to join the Fourth Ole Lando Lecture in September 2022, which will take place during ELI’s Annual Conference. ELI is grateful to University Carlos III in Madrid for agreeing to host its Annual Conference and Meetings.

A video of the event is available here.

To read the text of Professor MacQueen's lecture, please click here.

Read more on previous Ole Lando Memorial Lectures: