This book, for the first time, sets out in comprehensive and accessible fashion the law on acquiring, surrendering and transferring ownership rights in goods and chattels. These are issues that have the potential to present themselves in contentious and non-contentious matters of various kinds, for example in the contexts of testamentary and lifetime gifts and the law of mixtures, finding and bailment. It will therefore be of interest to a broad range of practitioners, as well as academics with an interest in property.
The book examines the protection of property rights in chattels through the law of torts, focusing on the four actions of conversion, detinue, trespass and negligence. Traditionally these actions have been governed by arcane divisions which have led to unnecessary complexity and arbitrariness. The principal argument made in the book is that significant developments in the modern law point towards abolition of these arcane divisions and permit the chattel torts to be understood by reference to a coherent and justifiable structure. It is argued that the only division which should be drawn in the modern chattel torts is between intentional interferences with chattels, where liability is strict, and unintentional interferences with chattels, where liability is fault based. In order to demonstrate this structure it is first argued that the actions of conversion, detinue and trespass amount, in substance, to a single cause of action which imposes strict liability for the intentional interference with another's chattel. It is then argued that the tort of negligence recognises a fault-based cause of action for the unintentional interference with another's chattel. It is further argued that this basic structure, unlike the arcane divisions which have traditionally governed this area of law, can be justified.
This text examines basic tenets of property law such as the doctrine of estates, legal and equitable interests, methods of registering and prioritising interests in property. It also examines specific property interests and the way in which interest is conveyed, registered and co-ordinated.
