Claims with respect to pre-existing property rights: a search for principle and coherence

Thesis

This project isolates and examines a fundamental question: how, and for what reasons, is an existing proprietary right relevant to claims subsequently made by the right-holder and the remedy she is awarded? At law and in Equity, there are examples where it is controversial what role a pre-existing proprietary right plays in justifying subsequent claims and remedies. This thesis provides a systematic taxonomy for understanding different types of relationship that can exist between pre-existing rights, claims, and remedies. This scheme, it is argued, is useful in helping us make sense of knotty doctrinal issues. The structure of this project's inquiry proceeds in three broad steps. First, it examines the identity conditions of pre-existing proprietary rights at common law and in Equity. Second, it draws out a taxonomy through which different types of claims and remedies in relation to pre-existing proprietary rights can be understood. Finally, the analysis developed in these steps is applied and tested against a selection of 'hard cases'. At common law, this concerns cases based on: (a) mixtures, specification, and manufacture of the physical subject matter of a legal property right; and (b) substitutions of legal property rights (i.e., 'common law tracing' claims). In Equity, these include claims concerning: (a) rights dependent on tracing; and (b) rights against third-party recipients of trust assets following a breach of trust. In all these situations, there is a lack of clarity about whether a claim, and its remedial outcome, is, or is not, explained simply by a plaintiff's enforcement of a pre-existing right. Working out such 'hard cases' requires one to confront key issues attending the broader fundamental question underlying this project. Resolving them sheds light on how that fundamental question can be addressed more generally, and beyond the types of cases considered in this project.

Authors: Belle, A

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-nozwynov4
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: common law; equity; taxonomy; claims; the law of trusts; remedies; property; contract; english law; tort; private law; rights; contract law; tort law; property law; trusts
• Subjects: Commercial law; Remedies (Law); Trusts and trustees; Claims; Common law; Property; Right of property