W 1: The concept of Property Law
W 2: Type of Assets, principles and actions. Ownership- Presession-Detention.
W 3: Acquisition of Property Rights, Transfer Systems and Transfer of land
W 4: Limited Property Rights
W 5: Tutorial
W 6: Security Rights
W 7: Security Rights II
W 8: Global finance
W 9: Tutorial
W 10: Financial restructuring law
W 11: Financial restructuring: A business perspective
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,Theme and Approach
Property law deals with our relation to objects. It determines which rights individuals and
organizations have in relation to tangible objects such as land and vehicles, and whether the same
rights exist in relation to intangible or ‘incorporeal’ things, such as claims and intellectual
property rights. Upon creation, property rights bind not only the parties (as do contractual rights),
but, in principle, they bind the entire world. This means that property rights have an erga omnes
effect, the owner of a property right can oppose this right against the entire world.
Course requirements
Assignments
- +0.5
- You are allowed to miss submitting three out of the eleven assignments of the course.
- Where possible, use multiple sources (either mandatory or non-mandatory readings), legal
provisions, and relevant case law to underpin your work as if your submission is a proper
academic article with complete footnotes and a brief bibliography.
-- The assignments must be submitted in either DOC/.DOCX or PDF file; no other formats will
be accepted. They should contain your name, student number, and clearly indicate the relevant
session. Please save the files you will submit as: YOUR SURNAME_Session X (here insert the
relevant session number)
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, Week 1: The concept of Property Law
B.Akkermans, ‘Property Law’ in J.Hage et al. (eds), Introduction to Law,
Springer 2017, pp 80-83.
1. PROPERTY RIGHTS
Personal rights / Relative rights - rights against a particular person.
- These absolute rights always pertain to “something” -> object of the right (1) tangible, (2)
intangible – trademarks, intellectual property (copyrights, patents), shares, claims
- = property rights
Property rights -> Have the effect “erga omnes” -> rights with effect against everyone ≠ contract
law which deals with legal relations between the contract parties only
Contract Law Tort Law Property Law
- Agreements - Wrongs - Assets
- Consent - Involuntary - Consent, status quo
- Obligation to keep - Obligation to make - Absolute rights
your promise good
Property and Contract Law
Ex: John buys a house for his family and signs a purchase agreement. In the acquisition of a
property contract, played a relevant part. After acquire ownership of the house, John rights are
not only opposable to sue based on CONTRACT LAW, but also to other individuals in the
world, based on PROPERTY LAW. As we see from this scenario, both property and contract
law can create obligations vis a vis another person in relation to an object, but the major
difference is the extent of this right.
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, Contract Law – deals with personal rights, which are rights and obligations that a person has to
one or more people. If we go back to our example, John has a contract with Sue for the purchase
of the house in return for an amount of money. This creates rights and obligations: John has the
right to be transferred the purchased house, while he has an obligation to pay the price of the
house.
Party autonomy- 2 ppl can establish what the content of their relationship is, the rights and
obligations and how extensive they are.
Property Law – effect to all people. Everyone has to respect an ownership right, for ex to ask
permission before crossing someone else’s land. So, the effect of property law is much greater
than the effect of contract law.
Numerus clauses – specific rights, most legal systems limit this to a specific set of property an
individual can have. For ex: a bank can have security rights, a mortgage or a pledge in relation to
John’s house; or a use right to a park next to his house. There are 8 of these rights, included in
jurisdictions and ppl have little autonomy, so if John creates a specific property right to someone
else, other persons will know exactly what the content of that right is.
Property rights are limited to a subset of rights and the same is the case of the content of these
rights. Contract Law has effect and creates duties only on parties, so it has inter parties effect and
the choices a person has are extensive in contract law.
Important framework: subject (who is the person exercising a particular right) + right (only one
of the limited nr of rights established by law, with ownership being the most extensive) + object
(tangible/movable; real/immovable, intangible/incorporeal)
Property Law and Contract Law help one another:
- A lot of property law is linked to contract law. If John buys the house from Sue needs to
transfer the ownership of the land, the transfer needs a reason – which is called cause in
property law. Often these reasons lay on contract law, for ex a sales agreement. So,
following a contract there is a transfer of property from Sue to John.
- A property law without Contract Law: John inherits the house (receiving property at the
death of the previous holder).
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