The Hamlyn Lectures are a series of public lectures in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland given annually on a legal topic. The lectures have been given every year since 1949 in memory of Emma Hamlyn 's father William Bussell Hamlyn.
The Hamlyn Trust was established in 1948 by the 1939 will of Emma Warburton Hamlyn in memory of her father, William Bussell Hamlyn, a solicitor and JP in Torquay. Emma Hamlyn had travelled widely and was intrigued by the relation between each country and their laws. Her mother, Emma Gorsuch Warburton, had died in 1913 and her father died in 1919. After this she spent the last twenty years at her home in Ilsham reading and receiving visitors.[1]
The trust was to further
among the Common People of this Country of the knowledge of the Comparative Jurisprudence and the Ethnology of the Chief European countries including our own and the circumstances of the growth of such Jurisprudence to the intent that the Common People of our Country may realise the privileges which in law and custom they enjoy in comparison with other European Peoples and realising and appreciating such privileges may recognize the responsibilities and obligations attaching to them.[1][2]
Initially there was doubt as to whether the trust was valid, but the High Court approved a scheme for the administration of the trust in 1948, which followed closely the wording of the will.[1][2]
The lectures became popular after Lord Denning delivered the first one and others agreed to follow his example.[1]
The three 2020 lectures were delivered on-line by Eleanor Sharpston QC on the apt subject of The Great Experiment: Constructing a European Union under the Rule of Law from a Group of Diverse Sovereign States."[3]