ABSTRACT
The conceptual origins of modern property law and its theoretical model of persons and things were made real by physically separating people and place through dispossession and diaspora. These material origins of modern property law, with the enclosure of the English commons, made it possible to replace localised and physically responsive land laws with universalised and abstract land laws. This chapter examines the material origins of modern property law beyond England’s shores in what became her colonies. The model of persons and things that characterised modern property law in England was transported across the world through the project of colonisation. Thus, although the development of the property laws of England’s colonies have locally particular histories and functions – these laws remain ultimately and demonstrably alien and maladapted.
