Celebrated for their conceptual clarity, titles in the Clarendon Law Series offer concise, accessible overviews of major fields of law and legal thought. For many, Equity's greatest contribution to the law has been its manipulation of traditionally accepted concepts of property. This chapter deals with two strategies that Equity adapted to achieve its radical ends. Equity's first strategy is straightforward. Equity would sometimes regard certain assets as property even when the Common Law did not. This meant that these assets could be traded; they became usable wealth, at least in Equity's eyes. Equity's second strategy for manipulating concepts of property is more complicated. Equity will sometimes say that A ‘owns’ a car (or a company share, or an insurance pay-out) even though the Common Law says that B does. The chapter considers what it means when Equity says that A ‘owns’ property, and why the assertion is so ingenious.
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This chapter examines property rights in land and personal rights that may allow a party to make a particular use of land. It first considers the distinction between personal rights and property rights before addressing the content question: whether the type of right claimed by a party counts as a property right. To answer that question, a distinction is made between different types of property right. The most important distinction is between legal property rights, on the one hand, and equitable property rights, on the other. The chapter also discusses licences to use land and contrasts their operation and effect with those of property rights in land. It highlights the nature of licences and the controversy over contractual and estoppel licences and concludes with an analysis of the relationship between the law of leases and of licence.
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This chapter considers two forms of design right available in the United Kingdom: registered and unregistered design rights. The former is the older concept and was initially applicable to designs intended to be imprinted on linen; the system was extended to other forms of product by the Copyright and Design Act of 1839. This offered protection for ‘the ornamentation and for the shape and configuration of any article of manufacture’. The notion of unregistered design right was introduced to the United Kingdom in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Design rights in tablet computers are also discussed.
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Bernadette Rainey, Elizabeth Wicks, and Andclare Ovey
This chapter examines protection of the right to property in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It discusses the provisions of Article 1 of Protocol 1 and explains that all the provisions of the Convention, including Articles 13 to 18, apply equally to the rights guaranteed by the First Protocol. The chapter also suggests that the Strasbourg Court has come to approach the protection of property rights using much the same methodology as it adopts in relation to complaints of violations of the rights protected by Articles 8 to 11. It examines the application of the right to property to issues such as restitution and rent control.
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Land is an important commodity in society that it is both permanent and indestructible, two features which distinguish it from other forms of property. More than one person can have a relationship with the land and share the right to possess it. The right to possess a land is known as ownership right, but it is also common for people to have enforceable rights in other people’s land. This is a third-party right, an example of which is where the owner of a house in a residential area agrees with neighbours that the house will only be used as a residence. This chapter discusses land and property rights, ownership rights, third-party rights, and conveyancing. It also examines the distinction in English law between real property and personal property, the meaning of land, items attached to the land, fixtures and fittings, and incorporeal hereditaments.
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Land is an important commodity in society that it is both permanent and indestructible, two features which distinguish it from other forms of property. More than one person can have a relationship with the land and share the right to possess it. The right to possess a land is known as ownership right, but it is also common for people to have enforceable rights in other people’s land. This is the third party right, an example of which is where the owner of a house in a residential area agrees with neighbours that the house will only be used as a residence. This chapter discusses land and property rights, ownership rights, third party rights, and conveyancing. It also examines the distinction in English law between real property and personal property, the meaning of land, items attached to the land, fixtures and fittings, and incorporeal hereditaments.
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This chapter introduces the nature of Equity. It provides a legal definition of Equity and offers a background of its history from the Middle Ages. It discusses the contemporary contribution of Equity to English law in a variety of different contexts, particularly in the commercial sphere. The chapter also examines fundamental feature of Equity, which is the division between the recognition and protection of property rights and personal rights. This chapter explains that Equity is not an independent system of law, but it has a distinct identity and function to modify the rigours of the Common Law and to create rights.
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Celebrated for their conceptual clarity, titles in the Clarendon Law Series offer concise, accessible overviews of major fields of law and legal thought. This chapter focuses on appurtenant rights, or rights that are held along with ownership rights. It explores three such rights: easements, which are rights to do something on someone else's land; profits à prendre, which are rights to take something from someone else's land; and restrictive covenants, which are rights to prevent someone doing something on his own land. The chapter begins by looking at the law relating to easements, noting the reforms recommended by the Law Commission in respect of each. It then looks at restrictive covenants, and finally at the Commission's more radical proposals, which would prevent the future creation of hybrid property/contractual rights, and instead make available a legal interest in land to support obligations, both positive and negative.
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Celebrated for their conceptual clarity, titles in the Clarendon Law Series offer concise, accessible overviews of major fields of law and legal thought. This chapter provides an introduction to land law. Land law is the law concerning property rights in land, also known as the law of real property. ‘Land’ does not only refer to the earth but includes the buildings on it; and it includes buildings separated from the earth, so that the owner of the top-storey flat is still a landowner. ‘Land’ also includes intangible things such as rights of way; and some rights that are not attached to physical land. Today, property rights vary in their enforceability, and the most important tool used to achieve this has been the registration of title to land. Property rights are also affected by the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. At issue is whether or not the Convention rights force a re-examination of the property rights already recognized in English law.
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G. T. Laurie, S. H. E. Harmon, and E. S. Dove
This chapter examines the question of the limits set on our right to control our bodies or parts thereof. This debate has centred on the very important issue of our relationship with our body, and the status of the body, which has most recently been shaped by ideas of property. The chapter considers three aspects of that debate: property in material taken from living persons; property in material taken from cadavers; and the granting of intellectual property rights in human material.
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Ben McFarlane, Nicholas Hopkins, and Sarah Nield
All books in this flagship series contain carefully selected substantial extracts from key cases, legislation, and academic debate, providing able students with a stand-alone resource.This chapter explores the content of equitable interests in land, and considers how such rights differ from each of personal rights and legal estates and interests. Equitable interests in land are capable of being asserted against third parties. They have a power lacking in personal rights. The content and acquisition questions are answered differently depending on whether B claims a legal or equitable property right. It is noted that equitable interests in land depend on A’s coming under a duty to B. Moreover, as observed, equitable property rights are conceptually different from legal property rights.
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N V Lowe and G Douglas
This chapter discusses the key personal legal consequences of marriage and civil partnership. These include the use of surname, sexual intercourse, evidence in legal proceedings, contracts, torts, criminal law, and citizenship and right to live in the UK. It then turns to the implications of marriage on general property law, covering the modern law and reform proposals.
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D Fox, RJC Munday, B Soyer, AM Tettenborn, and PG Turner
This chapter explores some basic concepts of personal property and personal property law. It first explains the distinction between personal and real property before discussing the nature of personal property and analysing the characteristics and significance of property rights. There is then detailed consideration of ownership and possession of chattels, the acquisition and transfer of legal and equitable ownership, and attornment. This is followed by an account of the acquisition and transfer of legal and equitable ownership in choses in action and intangibles. The chapter concludes with an examination of the remedies for recovery of, and interference with, personal property and remedies available for protection of equitable property, including claims to trust assets and claims for breach of trust.
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This chapter considers the international aspects of intellectual property rights. It summarizes the various international conventions, treaties, agreements, and protocols that are in place, all of which are administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization. The chapter also discusses European initiatives in the areas of patents, trade marks, industrial designs, and copyright.
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David Harris, Michael O’Boyle, Ed Bates, and Carla Buckley
Recognition of a pecuniary right in national law or practice will give rise to a ‘possession’ under the Convention. Article 1 imposes upon states positive obligations to protect property, and negative obligations not to interfere with the right to property without justification. It provides for two types of interference: deprivation of property is justified only where it is in the public interest and in accordance with national law and the general principles of international law; control of use of property is justified only where it accords with national law and is in the general interest or to secure the payment of taxes or other contributions. Where interference doesn’t fall into one of these types it is regulated under the first sentence of Article 1. The standard in all cases requires a ‘fair balance’ be struck between the public interest and the burden of the interference on the person.
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Julie Ringelheim
This chapter examines the sources of cultural rights in international human rights law, describes their evolution, and highlights the major debates regarding their interpretation. Specifically, it discusses the content and meaning of the right to take part in cultural life, the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, and the rights of authors and inventors to the protection of their moral and material interests.
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Julie Ringelheim
This chapter examines the sources of cultural rights in international human rights law, describes their evolution, and highlights the major debates regarding their interpretation. Specifically, it discusses the content and meaning of the right to take part in cultural life, the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, and the rights of authors and inventors to the protection of their moral and material interests.
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Celebrated for their conceptual clarity, titles in the Clarendon Law Series offer concise, accessible overviews of major fields of law and legal thought. This chapter introduces the specific ideas that form the building blocks of land law, namely property rights in land, and explains how they evolved by a mixture of design and accident. It is organized as follows. The first part is about ownership rights, covering tenure, estate, leasehold ownership, freehold, leasehold, and commonhold. The second part describes the systems of law and equity and the contrast between legal and equitable ownership rights. The third considers the range of non-ownership rights, both legal and equitable. The result is a heap of rights which may all be found in one piece of land. The fourth part explains a little about the enforceability of legal and equitable property rights.
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Elizabeth Cooke
Celebrated for their conceptual clarity, titles in the Clarendon Law Series offer concise, accessible overviews of major fields of law and legal thought. Land Law looks at the way in which the law regulates our relationship with the land on which we walk, work, and live. The field of land law is about the connections between people and land, and also the relationships between people, jostling for space and allocating resources. As people change, so do the ways they use and think about land: land law today looks very different from how it did fifty years ago, and in another generation's time it will have changed again. The volume introduces the building blocks of land law, namely property rights in land, and explains how they have evolved by a mixture of design and accident. The text examines ownership rights, non-ownership rights, both legal and equitable, and provides analysis of how these different rights can apply to a single piece of land, and how they are managed and enforced. Throughout the text, the role of registration is central, and the implications of the Land Registration Act 2002 for English land law are fully explored.
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This chapter deals primarily with the various interests that could be acquired in property, particularly ownership, rights to servitudes, and possession. The Roman law of property is one of the lasting and important legacies of their legal order and has had a profound impact upon modern legal systems across the world. This chapter begins by considering the Roman classification of property. This was the intellectual starting point in the teaching manuals preserved from the classical period of Roman law. The purpose of this exercise in classification was to demonstrate that certain objects fell outside the sphere of private ownership. Apart from issues of classification, this chapter deals primarily with the various interests that could be acquired in property, particularly ownership, limited real rights over the property of others, such as rights to servitudes, and possession. It deals with the legal rules governing these institutions and their interrelationships. In theory, the interests in property may be divided into two broad categories, namely legal interests (ownership and limited real rights) and factual interests (possession). While such a division is useful, it should not be seen as absolute, since possession, though largely a question of fact, could also have certain legal consequences. But first the Roman classification of property must be considered.
