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Overview
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Associate Professor in the Durham Law School+44 (0) 191 33 42808

Biography

Research

Andy specialises in family law, especially the law relating to adult interpersonal relationships. Drawing upon historical and comparative law perspectives, his research critically analyses the legal regulation of formalised and non-formalised adult relationships and, in particular, the property consequences generated by their breakdown. Andy has presented his research at national and international conferences.

Andy is currently working on three research projects. The first project focuses on domestic and comparative cohabitation reform. Andy is currently exploring models of cohabitation reform and potential solutions to the absence of comprehensive cohabitation protections in England and Wales. This project builds upon Andy’s appointment as Specialist Adviser to the Women and Equalities Committee of the UK Parliament to advise on their Rights of Cohabiting Partners Inquiry and his engagement work with key stakeholders. In 2021, he launched with Professor Jens Scherpe a major global comparative study that analyses the legal protections afforded to cohabitants in over 40 jurisdictions. These findings will be published by Edward Elgar in De Facto Relationships: A Comparative Guide in 2025. He currently advises domestic and overseas policymakers on cohabitation reform and is working closely with key practitioner organisations such as Resolution with a view to securing reform in the future. Andy is also the project lead on the Cohabitation network of Family Law Reform Now and he has contributed to media coverage on this issue for BBC News, Times Radio, the iPaper, Today’s Media, The Conversation and ITV Tyne Tees.

The second project focuses on same-sex marriage and same-sex/mixed-sex civil partnership reform. He is currently exploring the evolution of 'equal' civil partnerships following the extension to the regime to mixed-sex couples in England and Wales in December 2019. Drawing upon comparative family law, he published in 2017 with Professor Jens Scherpe an edited collection with Intersentia entitled The Future of Registered Partnerships - Family Recognition beyond Marriage?. This research, and its implications for policy-makers, forms the foundation of the Reforming Civil Partnerships. In February 2020 Andy gave oral evidence to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee of the Scottish Parliament on the Civil Partnerships (Scotland) Act 2020.

The third project analyses family property and trusts of the family home. Andy has a particular interest in the 'familialisation of property law' evidenced in the development of both the common intention constructive trust and proprietary estoppel. His co-edited collection with Professor Margaret Briggs on Family Property and the Law will be published with Edward Elgar in 2024. Andy’s research on family property has been cited favourably extra-judicially by Lord Kerr, former Justice of the UK Supreme Court. 

Andy is currently an Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. Andy has also held several visiting positions at universities across Europe including the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), the Institut de Droit Comparé Edouard Lambert, Université Jean Moulin III, Lyon (France) and the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Law and Bye-Fellow at Robinson College). 

Andy also holds first class degrees from the University of Durham (LLB (ELS) involving an ERASMUS year at the bilingual University of Fribourg in Switzerland) and the University of Cambridge (LLM (Magdalene College)).

Andy’s Twitter handle is @DrAndyHayward; he tweets in a personal capacity.

Teaching

Andy has teaching expertise in family law, land law, equity & trusts and legal history. In 2009 he established the popular Law of Family Relationships module and to acknowledge student success on that course created the Sir Andrew McFarlane Prize in Family Law, offering the top three students marshalling opportunities at the Royal Courts of Justice. In recognition of his contribution to teaching on that course and more generally at Durham Law School he received the University Excellence in Learning and Teaching Award in 2016 and nominations for Oxford University Press Law Teacher of the Year Award and Lecturer of the Year by Durham University’s Student Union, LawCareers.Net and the Northern Law Awards.

He supervises undergraduate and LLM dissertations in the field of family law and acts as an Academic Adviser to students.

He has completed the Postgraduate Certificate of Academic Practice (PGCAP) and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Postgraduate Research Supervision

Andy has extensive experience of supervising postgraduate research students in the fields of Family Law and Equity. These include the one-year Master of Jurisprudence (MJur) and the three/four-year Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). He has also acted as external examiner on several projects. Andy was nominated for the award of Excellence in Research Student Supervision at the Durham University Learning and Teaching Awards 2022.

Previous postgraduate research projects supervised include the meaning of ‘needs’ in the granting of Financial Orders, reform of divorce law, the legal recognition of prenuptial agreements, the ‘familialisation’ of constructive trusts, parental responsibility for unmarried fathers, cohabitation reform and human rights, unjust enrichment, and the compatibility of the paramountcy principle with human rights law.

Andy welcomes PhD and MJur research proposals from students in the areas of family law (adult relationships), comparative family law and equity, especially trusts of the family home.

Administration

Andy is currently Director of Postgraduate Research in the Law School. He oversees all matters relating to the MJur and PhD programmes. With Dr Dafni Lima, he is Co-Director of Gender and Law at Durham (GLAD), a research centre that supports, develops and enhances research and teaching in the broad field of law and gender.

He previously served as Director of External Relations and Early Career Researcher Coordinator.

Andy's office number in the Law School is PCL126 located on the first floor of the Palatine Centre.

Research interests

  • Domestic and Comparative Family Law
  • Family Property
  • Legal History
  • Trusts and Equity

Publications

Book review

Chapter in book

Conference Paper

Doctoral Thesis

Edited book

Journal Article

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

Presentation

Supervision students