In Tinsley v. Milligan 1 the House of Lords has reconsidered the law concerning the enforcement of illegal contracts. The House refrained from treating the case as one in which an illegal contract could be enforced, but rather saw it as a case in which it recognized a property right that had been already created by the parties. However, their Lordships’ speeches are likely to have a profound effect on the de facto enforceability of illegal contracts. They admitted that they were departing from the rule established 200 years ago by Lord Eldon, despite “its eminent authorship and its impressive antiquity”,2 but they depicted their decision as a moderate one, cautiously following established doctrine. This is a modest description of a revolutionary decision responding to previous calls by the Court of Appeal3 for a radical change in the law.