ABSTRACT
Some of the earliest actions known to English law were concerned with the protection of interests in land. The strict rules governing the old categories of claims concerning land and other interests, and indeed the actions themselves, were abolished in the 19th century during a period of reform and rationalisation of the legal system and its procedures, but the ancient forms of action still influence the way in which the law of tort is classified and continue to have a bearing on the elements of the torts themselves. The introduction of negligence as a separate tort in 1932 has complicated matters by providing an alternative and, in some instances, some would argue, a more useful remedy to people who complain of interference with property rights.
