Possession, Relative Title, and Ownership in English Law

Abstract

This book is concerned with two foundational principles of English property law: the principle of relativity of title and the principle that possession is a source of title. It is impossible to understand the relationship between possession and ownership in English law unless one has a sound understanding of these principles. Yet the principles have been interpreted in different ways by judges, practitioners, and academics. The book seeks to illuminate this area of law by addressing four questions: (1) What is possession? (2) What is the nature of the title acquired through possession? (3) What are the grounds of relativity of title? (4) What is the relationship between relativity of title and ownership?

A numerus clausus rationale for the privity of contract: the protective function

“…1 Similarly, the common law of property, even if not asking for the tangibility of objects, demands some specific requirements, such as the transferability and separability of the right (Candian et al, 1992;Penner, 1997Penner, , 2013, which cannot be found in the commercialisation of digital entities. Other accounts of the common law of property provide an approach that is even more restrictive (Douglas 2011a(Douglas , 2011bPretto-Sakmann, 2005;Rostill, 2021), requiring possession, and thus tangibility, to access the status of property and proprietary remedies (see, e.g., the tort of conversion or trespass for moveables). This applies mainly to the English common law of property, whereas in the United States some case-law differ by allowing conversion for intangible personal property (Network Sys.…”