This edited collection of papers comes from the well-established Modern Studies in Property Law biennial conference. It examines a diverse range of topics in property law and uses a wide range of methodological approaches to reflect on a variety of current and emerging themes and important issues that have been overlooked, offering new analysis and insights that will be valuable for property lawyers, academics, and students. It considers new developments in property law, including those connected with digital assets and the issues that have arisen from co-housing. The contributors are leading academics and practitioners from several common law jurisdictions, which expands the book’s focus and enhances its value to the reader.

This monograph 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 volume seeks to illuminate this area of law by addressing four questions. What is possession? What is the nature of the title acquired through possession? What are the grounds of relativity of title? And, what is the relationship between relativity of title and ownership? Drawing on the analysis of the law concerning relativity of title and the acquisition of proprietary interests through possession, the author also implies that the architecture of land law and the law of personal property have many similarities.