Cost of living crisis: some legal implications

Speakers:  Professor Hugh Collins (LSE); Professor Sarah Paterson (LSE); Dr Joe Spooner (LSE)

The cost of living in the UK is rising at the fastest rate for 40 years, with prices for essential goods (especially food and energy) increasing at a much higher rate than incomes, and borrowing costs for households and businesses the highest they have been in over a decade. You are warmly invited to join our LSE Law experts as they explore some of the practical legal implications of this ongoing crisis. Can parties to a contract plead the sudden rise in costs as an excuse for non-performance, and how does English law compare with other legal systems on that question? What is the effect of the crisis on personal debt, and what role do debt relief and bankruptcy have in helping stressed households? And how is the crisis and the higher cost of credit affecting large and small companies? To discuss these issues, we are joined by Hugh Collins, Cassel Professor of Commercial Law; Sarah Paterson, Professor of Law; and Joe Spooner, Associate Professor of Law. Q&A will follow the presentations. Prof Emmanuel Voyiakis will chair.