Optical probes that provide information about local chirality have been developed based on changes to the circular polarisation of emitted light. Highly emissive complexes of lanthanide ions are ideally suited for CPL spectroscopy and the design criteria for developing such probes are defined, based on a rigorous stereochemical analysis. The perturbation of a dynamically racemic complex may occur either by a change in complex constitution or by non-covalent association. With complexes of enantiopure ligands, perturbation may involve either dynamic helicity inversion or a reversible change in the lanthanide coordination environment.