2. Personal property

This chapter is intended to provide an introduction to the concepts that underpin the law as it relates to property other than estates and interests in land. The issues in the chapter are complex and there remain numerous troublesome areas where the law is far from clear. The chapter begins by considering some basic principles and outlining the way in which English law categorizes property before moving on to consider how ownership is best thought of as a bundle of rights over something that the law recognizes as something which can be owned. Two of the three types of proprietary claim to personal property are discussed here—ownership and possession—followed by a discussion of the nature of legal ownership, including co-ownership, along with the difference between legal and equitable ownership.