University of Cambridge, Faculty of Law

Personal Property (Half Paper) (Tripos)

Syllabus
  1. The definition and nature of property and of personal property; the range of proprietary interests which can be created at law and in equity; specific assets distinguished from fungibles and funds; proprietary character of incorporeal property (choses in action); introduction to the phenomenon of de-physicalisation of property, explained by reference to money and corporate securities.
  2. The character of money explained from the perspectives of economic and legal history; economic conceptions of money and their status in private law; concepts of payment, discharge and legal tender.
  3. Title at common law and in equity, and the implications of the principle of relativity of title, explained by reference to cases on finding of lost chattels.
  4. Selected original means of acquiring title to choses in possession and choses in action:
    1. mixtures of chattels and money.
    2. creation of property rights by overreaching and unauthorised substitution.
  5. Derivative transfers of title:
    1. the distinction between contract and conveyance in common law and civilian legal theory.
    2. transfers of title to choses in possession.
    3. transfers of incorporeal money through payment systems, and their proprietary consequences.
    4. Nemo dat and selected exceptions, particularly the currency of money.
  6. Defective transfers; the proprietary consequences of void and voidable transfers:
    1. at law.
    2. in equity, including the relevance of resulting trusts to defective transfers.
    3. relationship with remedies founded on unjust enrichment.
  7. The resolution of priority disputes:
    1. competing legal and equitable claims to personal property.
    2. competing equitable claims to personal property.
  8. Shares and corporate securities:
    1. nature.
    2. acquisition.
    3. transfer, including transfer through electronic settlement systems, such as CREST.
    4. security interests.
    5. destruction.
  9. The protection of title to choses in possession and choses in action:
    1. the property torts, with special reference to conversion; enforcement of title to money at law and in equity.
    2. recovery in specie (self-help; recaption; court action).
  10. Bankruptcy, execution and distress:
    1. vesting of property in the trustee in bankruptcy.
    2. recovery of property transferred at an undervalue; preferences.