1. Property Law
China EU Law School

2. Development of English Law Land Law Personal Property Law (if time)
Contents
Introduction
Development of English Law
Land Law
Personal Property Law (if time)
Concluding remarks

3. Development of English Law
1066 – Beginning of the Common Law
1066 – 1450 Formative Period
After 1500 Common law was set
After 1500 Rise of Equity (trusts)
1870s Merger of jurisdictions through court reform

4. Feudal System, mainly based in Common Law All sorts of fees existed
Land Law
Feudal System, mainly based in Common Law
All sorts of fees existed
Fee Simple
Fee Tail
Life estate

5. Reform with Law of Property Acts 1925
Land Law
Reform with Law of Property Acts 1925
Includes Law of Property Act 1925, S.1.
‘1. Legal estates and equitable interests
The only estates in land which are capable of subsisting or of being conveyed or
created at law are –
a) An estate in fee simple absolute in possession;
b) A term of years absolute....’

6. Land Law
Legal Estates
Fee Simple
Term of Years

7. Term of Years (a.k.a. Leasehold)
Land Law
Term of Years (a.k.a. Leasehold)
Street v Mountford [1985] AC 809, HL per Lord Templeman
Exlusive Possession of Land
For a Limited Period of Time
That can be determined

8. Term of Years (a.k.a. Leasehold)
Land Law
Term of Years (a.k.a. Leasehold)
Personal right because it came after the formative period of common law
But lessees got access to the real actions
Therefore, privity of estate rather than privity of contract

9. S1 LPA 1925: Land Law Equity is the rest-category
(3) All other estates, interests, and charges in or over land take effect as equitable interests’.
Equity is the rest-category
If an equitable right exists, and it is not a specific property right such as an easement or a charge, a trust exists also.

10. Maxims of Equity Equity Equity follows the law
You must come to equity with clean hands
Equity looks at that as done which ought to be done

11. No feudal system for chattels
Personal Property Law
No feudal system for chattels
No estates, but rights
No fee simple but title
No lease, but bailment
Therefore different rules, but similar approach
Also law and equity exist:
E.g. Mortgage and equity of redemption

12. English law is one system of law It comprises:
Concluding Remarks
English law is one system of law
It comprises:
Common law and Equity
Land law and personal property law
We must (try to) understand it as one system