Newcastle University

Introduction

Dr. Jane Ball is a senior lecturer at Newcastle Law School, where she teaches Equity, Trusts, Contract law, Law and Land Use and International Security and Credit. After years in private practice as a solicitor she tried and enjoyed university teaching at Manchester Metropolitan University from 1994. She then obtained scholarship at Sheffield University to study for a doctorate about how people on a low income are housed in France.   

Her recent book 'Housing Disadvantaged People. Insiders and Outsiders in French Social Housing' combines the study of a mix of French law, with qualitiative interviews in France and economic theory. Insider outsider theory is normally applied to labour markets, but aptly describes processes of exclusion in social housing.  She specializes in comparative and interdisciplinary research in areas where there is a mismatch in national disciplines, the neglected fringes. 

Roles and Responsibilities

Stage 3 year tutor 

Mooting co-ordinator

Careers liaison

Qualifications

LLB (Liverpool) 1975, PhD (Sheffield) 2008

Solicitor of the Supreme Court 1978

Trust and Estates Practitioner 2010

Previous Positions

Graduate teaching assistant and then lecturer, University of Sheffield, 1997-2011

Visiting Professor, University of Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, 2010 

Associate lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University, 1994-1998  

Solicitor in Private Practice

Memberships

Law Society

Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners

Society of Legal Scholars

Socio-legal Studies Association

European Network for Housing Research

Housing Studies Association

Languages

French, German, with some Spanish and Latin  

Research Interests 

Comparative law, Property, Equity and Trusts, Housing, Tenures, Special Contracts, EU Harmonization, Housing Finance and Economics, Planning and Construction, Social Housing, Mortgages and Security, Eviction, Shared Ownership, Homelessness, Housing and Property Rights, Sociology. I have a particular interest in French law and other European property and tenure systems.  

Other Expertise

Law, practice and procedure, particularly in property, trusts, renting and shared ownership internationally. I am a qualified solicitor and a Trusts and Estate Practitioner accredited by the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners. I have a general knowledge of French law stemming from 14 years of study and teaching this.

Current and Future Work 

I am currently working to compare European propert concepts, tenures and special contracts, in a series of papers. My recent unpublished papers will shortly be listed at the bottom of this page.

 I have a particular concern for the effects of harmonization on housing, property, finance and financial services.  My comparison of shared ownership in England and France has led to a Catalan government project to introduce a long lease into Catalonia to ease access to housing there. The project continues with a view to legislation.

I have just completed a study of the progress of the right to housing in the Scottish homelessness legislation for the French Ministry of Housing and the Sorbonne-based French research grouping, GRIDAUH. The French right to housing was inspired by the Scottish model and both systems plan to expand eligibility in 2012s. I was invited to speak on the subject in Paris in September 2011

Research Roles and Esteem Factors 

Member of the editorial board of the International Journal of the Law of the Built Environment

Founder and co-coordinator of the international working group 'Legal Aspects of Housing, Land and Planning' within the interdisciplinary research organization, the European Network for Housing Research, which organizes workshops within the annual conference and in between conferences. 

Ongoing collaboration with the French National Agency for Housing Information (ANIL)  

I am a visiting professor at the Universityy of Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona.

A Member of the expert group of the FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organizations Working with the Homeless) 2003-5. 

Availability for postgraduate supervision 

I am available for postgraduate supervision in the areas of comparative law, housing, property and related areas.

If you want to receive further information on reading for a research degree at Newcastle Law School please see www.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/postgraduate/research/index.htm

 Recent Papers 

Jane Ball, ‘Seeking a methodology to compare tenures or residential occupancy rights in Europe’

(European Network for Housing Research Conference, Toulouse, July 2011) 

Jane Ball, ‘Where would you put English equity, trusts and property in a European civil code?’ (Property Stream of the SLS Conference, Cambridge, September 2011) 

Jane Ball, ‘The many faces of solidarity in French law: A European principle for property-related special contracts’ (Comparative Law Stream of the SLS Conference, Cambridge, September 2011)

 Jane Ball, ‘Où en est-on de l’expérience écossaise ? (Where are we with the Scottish experience?) (Panel contribution to the conference of GRIDAUH and the Ministry of Housing :-‘Where are we with the enforceable right to housing on the eve of the changes of 1^st January 2012 [loose translation], Paris, September 2011)

• Ball J. Housing Disadvantaged People? Insiders and Outsiders in French Social Housing. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011.
• Ball J. Between property and renting - Hybrid long leases as a project to create shared ownership for Catalonia. Internacional Journal of Land Law and Agricultural Science 2011, 6, 27-48.
• Ball J. Fragmentando la propiedad para la asequibilidad: La shared ownership o “nuevas” tenencias en Inglaterra y Francia [Fragmenting property for affordability:Shared ownership or “new” tenures in England and France]. In: Nasarre, S., Simon Moreno, H, ed. El Acceso a la Vivienda en el Contexto de Crisis. Madrid: Edisofer, 2011, pp.173-220.
• Ball J. Housing law is dead: Long live European housing law?. Journal of Legal Affairs & Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction 2010, 2(1), 21-30.
• Ball J, Christudason A. Realizing Rights. Journal of Legal Affairs & Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction 2010, 2(1), 1-4.
• Ball J. Using banks: The effect of national attitudes to public intervention in mortgage lending and eviction in French and English law. International Journal of the Law of the Built Environment 2010, 2(2), 118-138.
• Ball J. In contracts we trust - Dr. Jane Ball outlines the key implications for UK practitioners of the European contractual trust and the Draft Common Frame of Reference. Trusts and Estate Law and Tax Journal 2009, 18-21.
• Ball J. Insiders and outsiders in French social housing allocation - How conflicting rights exclude disadvantaged people. European Journal of Housing Policy 2009, 9(3), 313-335.
• Ball J. Property, altruism and welfare: How national legal conceptions affect allocation of social housing to the disadvantaged. In: Scanlon, K., Whitehead, C, ed. Social Housing in Europe II: A Review of Policies and Outcomes. London: London School of Economics, 2008, pp.63-82.
• Ball J. Les Systèmes de 'logement vestibulaire': Etude comparée du mal-logement en France et au Royaume-Uni ['Vestibular housing' systems – A comparative study of poor housing in France and the UK]. In: Laflamme, V., Lévy-Vroelant, C., Robertson, D., Smyth, J, ed. Le logement précaire en Europe: Aux marges du palais. Paris: l'Harmattan, 2007, pp.169-190.
• Ball J. Regard britannique sur le logement étudiant en France [A British view on student housing in France]. In: Laflamme, V., Lévy-Vroelant, C., Robertson, D., Smyth, J, ed. Le logement précaire en Europe: Aux marges du palais. Paris: l'Harmattan, 2007, pp.147-151.
• Foster NHD, Ball J. Imperialism and accountability in corporate law: The limitations of incorporation law as a regulatory mechanism. In: MacLeod, S, ed. Global Governance and the Quest for Justice: Volume II Corporate Governance. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006, pp.93-108.
• Ball J. Los derechos a la vivienda en el Reino Unido: La gestión por desahucio, si realojamiento y la possibile incompatibilidad con los derechos continentales [Housing rights in the UK. Management by eviction, re-housing and possible incompatibility with continental rights]. In: Ponce Solé, J, ed. Derecho Urbanístico, Vivienda y Cohesión Social y Territorial. Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2006, pp.155-177.
• Ball J (ed.). The boundaries of property rights in English law. In: Electronic Journal of Comparative Law: XVIIth International Congress of Comparative Law. 2006, Utrecht, Netherlands: Universiteit van Tilburg.
• Ball J. UK housing rights: Management by eviction, re-housing and possible incompatibility with continental rights. In: Ponce Solé, J, ed. Land Use Law, Housing and Social and Territorial Cohesion. Denver: Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, 2006, pp.65-79.
• Ball J. Why are houses more affordable in France?. Political Quarterly 2005, 76(1), 82-91.
• Ball J, Knorr-Siedow T. 28 Housing and urban affairs. In: Compston, H, ed. Handbook of Public Policy in Europe: Britain, France and Germany. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2004, pp.322-330.
• Ball J. Renting homes: status and security in the UK and France - A Comparison in the light of the Law Commission's proposals. The Conveyancer and Property Lawyer 2003, 67, 36-58.