15. Licences

In recent times, there has been considerable development with respect to determining how rights in land can be created and the implications of such rights for purchasers of land. Licences are not considered full proprietary rights but provide an interesting area where the law seeks to protect licensees from both the licensor and, in some cases, the purchaser. It is an area of law where the courts have had to deal with informal relationships and try to balance the conflicting pressures of the satisfaction of legitimate expectations with the desire for security of transactions. This chapter focuses on licences: it first considers the nature of licences before turning to contractual licences and the licensee’s rights, and contractual licences and third parties.