This book analyses proprietary restitution, at law and in equity, and inquires whether proprietary relief is available in defective transfers of property, such as mistaken payments. Refining the Birksian event-based classification of rights, it offers a coherent and rationalised approach to the transfer, creation and tracing of proprietary rights in general. The book sets out the current state of the law and discusses a vast body of case law. It is argued that the scope of proprietary relief following defective transfers of property is quite limited. Legal or equitable title in the transferred property remains vested in the transferor if his intention to execute the transaction is virtually absent altogether. If only equitable ownership is retained, a resulting trust comes into being. If legal and equitable ownership passes, the law of rescission might provide a power in rem which equips the respective party with a proprietary interest. Apart from that, however, no proprietary relief is available in defective transfer cases. In particular, constructive trusts have no role to play in this context. Proprietary Consequences in Defective Transfers of Ownership is a comprehensive work of interest to academic and professional readers alike.

This book analyses the mechanics of how legal ownership in tangible movable property is transferred from one person to another and whether certain kinds of defects, particularly mistakes, may prevent its passage. Though this area of the law may well be regarded as a core area of English private law, it has not yet received much attention in academic literature. It is argued that English law, on its best interpretation, and contrary to the traditionally accepted approach, adopts a principle of separation (i.e. that the underlying contract or other transaction is notionally distinct from the conveyance of title) and abstraction (i.e. that the conveyance of title is not dependent on the validity of the underlying contract or other transaction). This applies for transfers by delivery, transfers by sale and transfers by deed. Further, it is very rare for mistakes to prevent the passage of ownership. In fact, title passes unless the transferor's intention to transfer property is virtually absent altogether. For this purpose, an analogy is drawn with the distinctions made in Shogun Finance Ltd v Hudson.