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 deals with the tort of conversion. Conversion is best regarded as the tort which protects the owner of goods not against their being damaged (negligence covers that) but against their being dealt with or detained against his will. It is concerned with loss of goods rather than damage to them. The chapter discusses what goods can be converted; what entitlements the claimant in conversion must show; liability in conversion; remedies, such as the return of the goods or damages or both; and length of protection provided to the legal owner of goods.
Chapter
11. Conversion
Chapter
10. Nuisance
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 deals with the tort of nuisance, which is concerned exclusively with land. Nuisance embraces all the multifarious rights and interests appertaining to land — that extremely distinctive form of property whose characteristics include uniqueness, durability, fixity, contiguity, visibility, and short supply. Some such rights are natural, others must be acquired; some are absolute, others qualified; some depend on physical possession, others, such as easements, do not. One of these rights is the right to enjoy one's land. The chapter discusses how the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) can affect the landowner or occupier; cases where a defendant is held liable for failing to protect his neighbour; the nature of the occupier's duty; disamenity as the characteristic of nuisance law; and whether a landlord is liable for a nuisance committed by a tenant.
