The Open University

Dr Brett Crumley

Professional biography

Brett has worked as a central academic at the Open University since 2020. Previously he read for his PhD and worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Liverpool. He researches charity law and teaches equity and trusts law and contract law. He completed his undergraduate and masters degrees in law at the Nottingham Law School.

Research interests

Brett is currently writing about the law relating to charities, animal rights, and climate change.

Brett has written with a co-author, Dr John Picton (University of Liverpool), on the ability of charitable service-users to challenge cy-près schemes: ‘“Still Standing?”: Charitable Service-Users and Cy-près in the First-tier Tribunal (Charity)’ (2018) 3 Conv 262. The piece argues that service-users should have standing to appeal in the Charity Tribunal for England and Wales as 'persons affected' by changes to the purposes of a charity.

Teaching interests

Equity and Trusts Law
Contract Law
Access to Justice
Tort Law

Brett is willing to supervise PhD projects looking at charity law, trusts law, or related areas of private law.

Impact and engagement

Brett has delivered papers at several conferences, such as the SLS, ARNOVA, and MSPL.

External collaborations

Brett has co-written and co-presented research with Dr John Picton, University of Liverpool.