Fluidity of ownership and the tragedy of hierarchy

Abstract

If civil lawyers remain thinking within the existing inherited paradigm of one uniform primary right (buttressed by the numerus clausus and transparency principles) and a strict hierarchy between this primary right, secondary (and tertiary) rights, property law will alienate itself from the existing reality. That reality shows changes caused by far reaching, socio-economic and technical developments. One of the emerging consequences is that ownership is getting into a state of flux and is becoming fluid, a development that is now also beginning to affect other property rights. In order to find answers to the problems caused by this fluidity a procedural approach to this substantive change is offered.