ABSTRACT
Land law is a subject steeped in history. It has its origins in the feudal reforms imposed on England by William the Conqueror after 1066, and many of the most fundamental concepts and principles of land law spring from the economic and social changes that began then. However, while these concepts and the feudal origins of land law should not, and cannot, be ignored, we must remember that we are about to examine a system of law that is alive and well in the twenty-first century. It would be easy to embark on an historical survey of land law, but not necessarily entirely profitable. Of course, the concepts and principles that were codified and refined in the years leading up to 1 January 1926 – the effective date of the first wave of great legislative reforms1 – were themselves the products of decades of development, and every student of the subject must come to grips with the unfamiliar terminology and substance of the common law. Yet the purpose of this book is to present land law as it is today without obscuring the concepts and principles on which it is built. Indeed, as we move speedily forward in our electronic age, there is no doubt that the system of land law that came into effect on 1 January 1926 is creaking with the strain of absorbing all that has happened to society since then. It too has had to grow and develop in response to these changes. Consequently, although the substance of modern land law remains governed by the structure established by the Law of Property Act 1925 (LPA 1925), over 90 years of social and economic changes, inventive judicial decisions and further legislation have all played a part in moulding the substantive law to the needs of the modern age. In this respect, the most significant legislative development in recent times was the enactment of the Land Registration Act 2002 (LRA 2002). This came into force on 13 October 20032 and replaced entirely the Land Registration Act 1925 (LRA 1925). It heralded a new era for the law of real property, and its full effect is still being worked out in the case law. The LRA 2002 was the product of years of consideration and consultation by the Law Commission in conjunction with HM Land Registry. The reforms – the development of which is chronicled in detail in Law Commission Report No. 271, Land Registration for the Twenty-first Century: A Conveyancing Revolution – are designed to provide an efficient, clear, reliable and modern mechanism for the regulation of land of registered title. Many of the changes made by the 2002 Act remain controversial, even though more than ten years has passed since its entry into force. The most controversial of all – the introduction of a system of paperless, electronic conveyancing (e-conveyancing) (dealings with land) – would have revolutionised the way in which land is sold or transferred, marking a sharp break with the feudal past and the ancient origins of land law. In fact, this part of the 2002 Act is not yet in force, and it is unclear when (if at all) full ‘e-conveyancing’ will
be implemented.3 However, even without this, it is not too grand to say that the consequences of the reforms of the system of land registration achieved by the LRA 2002 already have altered fundamentally the nature of land law in England and Wales. If e-conveyancing takes hold, there will be little left untouched and land lawyers in the second two decades of the twenty-first century will witness as radical a change to the way we use and enjoy this precious resource called ‘land’ as did those lawyers who first grappled with the 1925 legislation.
