Norman Palmer CBE

Awards and Achievements

Appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for Services to Art and to Law (2006).

Docteur Honoris Causa of the Univeristy of Geneva (2005).

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (2005).

Honorary Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (2004).

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2000).

Public Appointments

Chair, Treasure Valuation Committee (2001 to date; member 1996-2001).

Chair, Illicit Trade Advisory Panel (2000 to 2005).

Chair, Ministerial Working Group on Human Remains in Museum Collections (2001 to 2003).

Members, Spoliation Advisory Panel (2000 to date).

Members, Legal Sub-Committee of the Quinquennial Review of the Export Licensing System (2001 to 2003).

Visiting Professor of Law at King's College London (2005 to date).

Emeritus Professor of the Law of Art and Cultural Property at UCL.

Formerly Professor of Commercial Law at UCL.

Other Distinctions

Honorary member of Seven Wentworth, the Chambers of David Jackson QC at Sydney NSW.

Norman is also standing Counsel to the National Gallery of Australia at Canberra.

Publications

Norman Palmer has written and edited numerous major works within his fields of expertise, including Palmer on Bailment (second edition 1991, third edition for publication in 2007), Product liability in the Construction Industry (1993), Art Loans (1997), Interests in Goods (second edition 1998), The Recovery of Stolen Art (1998), Museums and the Holocaust (2000), Cultural Heritage Statutes (second edition 2004) and Halsbury's Laws of England (sections on Bailment, Carriers, Confidentiality, Damages, Libraries and other Scientific and Cultural Institutions, Lien, and Tort). He is a contributor to the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents, English Private Law, and The Laws of Australia. He founded and co-edits the quarterly periodical Art Antiquity and Law.

Publications by Norman Palmer have been cited by the appellate courts of leading common law jurisdictions. Examples are the House of Lords, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of Canada, and the Court of Appeal of New Zealand.

Please contact the clerks (clerks@3sb.law.co.uk) for a full CV.

Professional reputation

Reported as 'excellent' in a survey of solicitors on counsel practising in banking law (The Lawyer) and as 'distinguished' in the field of art and cultural property law (The Times Law Section).

In recent years norman has been deeply engaged on various cultural law and policy advisory committees by appointment of successive Ministers for the Arts.

Practice

Norman Palmer's main areas of practice are the law regarding the art market including the restitution and mobility of art and antiquities and the drafting of art loan agreements, personal property law including bailment, carriage, chattel securities, finance leasing, sale of goods; conversion and title claims; general commercial and contract law; and arbitration.

Norman has advised overseas governments, banks, finance companies and other commercial corporations, insolvency practitioners, national and overseas musuems, art collectors and dealers, insurance practitioners, transport companies and local authorities.

Notable recent cases

• Bakwin v Erie Trading Ltd [2005] 22nd November (High Court, Master Rose)
• Marcq v Christie Manson & Woods Ltd [2004] QB 286, CA.
• Wincanton Ltd v P & O Trans European Ltd [2001] EWCA Civ 227, CA.
• Mayflower Foods Ltd v Barnard Bros Ltd and Others (1996) 9th August (High Court, Manchester).
• Euro Commercial Leasing Ltd v Cartwright and Lewis [1995] 2 BCLC 618 (High Court).
• Re Stapylton Fletcher Ltd [1995] 1 All ER 192 (High Court).
• Advised the Securicor company on its successful appeal to the House of Lords in Photo Productions Ltd v Securicor Ltd [1980] AC 827.

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