The equitable lien: credit, security, and priority in English law and economy, 1673–1925

Thesis

This dissertation is an historical study of the law of equitable lien. Under the modern law, ‘equitable lien’ describes a category of security interest, namely equitable charges that arise by implication of law. This dissertation unearths the historical roots of the equitable lien, including its central though long overlooked place in the entwined histories of the law of obligations, property, security, equity and trusts, succession, and insolvency. It explores how lawyers have conceptualised, and justified, a contested law of equitable lien, and how lawyers adapted this law to various legal, social, and economic ends. Its central question is how to account historically for the unpaid vendor’s lien, which is often presented today as the paradigmatic case of equitable lien.

The dissertation divides into two parts. Part I advances a general historical theory about the history of lien and equitable lien. Its aim is to lay a new foundation for the historical study of different kinds of equitable lien in particular, and equitable property rights more generally. It does this by illuminating the relationship between evolving doctrinal categories of lien and equitable lien; the origins and development of different equitable property rights; and the adjudication of complex problems of credit, security, and priority in Chancery in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Part II builds on this foundation with the first full-length historical study of one kind of equitable lien, the unpaid vendor’s lien. It situates this doctrine in early modern conveyancing; explores its functions as an asset-partitioning device when land sales were interrupted by supervening credit failure; and traces its development into an equitable property right.

Authors: Cleaver, M

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-9ra8oeyzp
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: trustee's lien; equitable liens; culture of credit; law and economy; bankruptcy; unpaid vendor's lien; doctrinal history; equitable property rights; legal concepts and categories; privity; equitable mortgage by deposit of title deeds; vendor's privilege; succession and inheritance; mere equities; Court of Chancery; asset partitioning; insolvency; Lord Eldon; legal history
• Subjects: Trusts and trustees; Bankruptcy; Law; Equity; Security (Law); Property; Law--History; Inheritance and succession