Land law, property ideologies and the British–Irish relationship

Abstract

This article examines the role of property ideologies, and the local contexts in which they were articulated and applied, in shaping English and Irish land law. Despite their shared histories and influences – from the transplant of the common law system to Ireland to traditions of training Irish lawyers and judges in English universities – the politics of property led Irish and English land law down distinct, and sometimes oppositional, ideological paths in the twentieth century. The politics and practices of land tenure, competing economic and property ideologies, and their direct links to the evolution of national identity and statehood in each jurisdiction, shaped the foundational commitments of English and Irish land law. The article traces the complexities of lived experience in regulating the use and ownership of land, as well as the role of global and local forces – from world-system movements (for example, the influence of European political developments in 1937 on the Irish Constitution) or bi-lateral relationships (for example, the impact of the Irish land wars on the English land reform movement, or the ongoing trade dependency between Britain and Ireland into the twentieth century). Our analysis reveals the multiple competing, and at times overlapping, property ideologies that shape property systems; and the powerful role of events and externalities in contextualising the practical, political, social and symbolic meaning and content of the law as it has evolved in local contexts, and in determining whether, and when, the status quo prevails, or a tipping point for law reform is reached.