ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some of the differences, explains what extent land law actually needs to conform to changing social conditions and considers some of the options for reform. Many of the provisions of Irish land law seem to an English lawyer to be so old-fashioned and out-of-date that it is surprising that normal legal life can have continued for so long without reforms being carried out. The reforms of the 1830s, the Dower Act, the Real Property Limitation Act, the Fines and Recoveries Acts, and the Wills Act 1837 occurred during or towards the end of this period of fundamental change. The reform scheme of the Law of Property Act 1925 of England is a radical one. Probably the best scheme for reform of land law in Ireland would be a radical one combining the English 1925 scheme and the Trusts of Land proposals.
