About the articles

In 1976, Henry Lydiate, then a newly qualified barrister, received funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to set up a practice specifically providing legal advice to visual artists. Artlaw Services provided free information and legal advice to artists until 1983, when funding cuts meant the advice could no longer be given for free.

Since this time, Henry has also been writing his 'Artlaw' column in Art Monthly, covering relevant and contemporary issues facing visual artists and craftspeople. Henry's columns refer to current legal and related issues in the art world. This archive, comprising every article written by Henry and published under the 'Artlaw' banner in Art Monthly, is therefore an historical document; this should be kept in mind when looking up relevant legislation or information about your legal problems.

In 2002, Henry and Artquest began collaborating on this archive. Articles will be archived here one month after they have been published in the newest edition of Art Monthly, ensuring the archive is kept up to date.

The archive is split into thirteen sections, accessible via the menu at the top of each screen.  Articles are accessed via the menus on the left of the screen, with the oldest at the bottom and newest at the top. The year in which the article was published is noted in the copyright statement at the foot of each article; where no year is noted, we do not have details of what the year of publication was. You can deduce this approximately from the years of publication noted on the articles before and after that entry.

Artlaw was launched at the old Royal Army Medical College in Millbank on 27 May 2003.

Please note: This archive contains many contact details, service advertisements and other opportunities which may no longer be valid. For professional development services for artists currently running, refer to the Artquest website and not Artlaw.  The basic outlines to current legistlation still apply (except in the Copyright before 1989 section, which is included for completeness of the archive and historical interest) but if you are in any doubt you should contact a legal advisor.

About the legal advice service

Artlaw also includes a free online legal advice and information service for visual artists and craftspeople who live and work in London. 

Who we CAN help:

• Individual professional visual artists and craftspeople living and working in London

Who we CANNOT help:

• Commercial (for profit) galleries and organisations
• Practitioners whose main career is not in the visual arts or crafts
• Artists and craftspeople who do not live and work in London
• Practitioners requiring advice on non-English law

If you require legal advice and information but we cannot help you, you can still contact a legal advisor.

What we CAN help with:

Q&A can cover any issue surrounding visual arts and crafts practice, including:

• Copyright
• Contracts
• Licensing
• Moral rights
• Image rights
• Censorship
• Import and export
• Health and safety
• and any other element relating to a professional artist or craftsperson's career.

What we CANNOT help with:

• Artlaw cannot answer litigious or potentially litigious queries - you will be redirected to a list of practising solicitors with an explanation as to why we cannot help.
• International legal systems, or those of any other country outside of England.
• Ongoing legal advice - Artlaw is a first port of contact for general legal advice on specific queries. It is not intended to be a service to support practitioners through, for example, detailed contractual negotiations or amendments, drafting letters or litigation
• Telephone or face to face advice - Artlaw is an email only legal advice service. If you do not have an email address, you can get one for free from Hotmail, Yahoo! or your internet service provider.

How the service works:

Artlaw is a free legal advice service for London-based professional visual artists and craftspeople.

Enquirers go through the online legal advice and links provided in Artlaw and if no alternative, existing online advice is specific enough for your query, you send it to us on the online form.  We pass this query on to our art legal specialist team, who lets us know if they need more information. If so, we let you know within 5 working days; if not, you get a response within 5 working days.  Your response will aim to fill out the options you have and may direct you to alternative legal advice services, or suggest other legal support.

We only provide responses via email - there is no option for either a face to face or telephone meeting. If you do not have an email address, you can get one for free from Hotmail, Yahoo! or your internet service provider.

Artlaw is intended as a first point of contact for legal advice. We cannot respond to ongoing queries or provide legal representation.

We are unable to provide direct contact details for any of our legal advisors; Artlaw is an email forwarding and response service between practitioners and these lawyers. Artlaw provides legal information and advice for professional visual artists and craftspeople living and working in London under English law only. You should read our disclaimer before using any of our services.

Further links and helpful pages

You can check the advice and information on this site's individual sections, both in the articles and in the Useful Links pages in each part.

To find out more about what Artquest does and for whom, see the Artquest website.