14. Licences

Licences have long occupied something of an amorphous position; they are not admitted to the category of full proprietary rights, but provide an interesting area where the law seeks to afford protection to licensees against both the licensor and, in certain circumstances, a purchaser of land. It is an area of law where the courts have had to come to terms with informal relationships and seek to accommodate the conflicting pressures of the satisfaction of legitimate expectations, on the one hand, and the desire for security of transactions on the other. This chapter covers the different types of licences, and particularly the contractual licence, as well as the question of revocability. The chapter also analyses judicial attempts to make contractual licences binding upon transferees in equity, and the subsequent retreat from those attempts.