Foundations of Property Law

Abstract

Abstract This book is an abridged translation of the first volume of Gemeineuropäisches Sachenrecht—a milestone in European private law theory, and in comparative property law more broadly, which elaborates property law (the ‘law of things’) as a sub-discipline of European private law for the first time. The English version sets out the conceptual framework of ‘property law’ as a domain of erga omnes monopoly rights that govern the relationship between persons vis-à-vis objects of value. Within that framework, a reflexive relationship appears between property rights and their objects—in which property rights play a role in constituting the very objects (‘things’) in which they are held. With magisterial comparative scope, insights are gleaned from all the jurisdictions of the European Union (including those of the United Kingdom) and brought to bear on the subject matter without the monotony of parallel descriptions of national law. Instead, the property law of diverse legal systems is brought together in a single picture without contradiction or repetition: a systematic elaboration of the objects of property rights, the role that ‘rights’ and ‘things’ play in determining the province of ‘property law’, and various questions regarding the identification of things, their separation, alteration, or combination.