CPLC Work in Progress Seminar: 'Art as Land: Land as Art'

Speaker: Dr Emma Waring (University of York)

Distinguishing between fixtures and chattels has been a perennial concern of property lawyers from the Roman jurists onward and remains of practical importance to all homeowners today. Under the ‘superficies solo cedit’ rule, chattels may merge with land to such an extent that they become part and parcel of the land itself. This Work in Progress Seminar outlines some of the legal and practical implications of applying the rules on accession of chattels to a particular class of object - art.

Whether a statue in Victorian England, or a piece of ephemeral street art by Banksy, the issues raised by the accession of art to land can be emotive and complex. This Seminar will examine some of these questions by considering the rights and responsibilities that landowners have over artworks on their land; whether landrelated artworks are sufficiently protected when legally categorised as ‘land’; and whether classifying land as ‘art’ can be problematic by constraining not only third parties, but also the landowner’s bundle of rights.

The work in progress seminars are open to all LLM/MCL and PhD students, Faculty members and Faculty visitors.