LS452B: COMMERCIAL PROPERTY LAW (2019-2020)

Course Aims: The course aims to provide students with a knowledge and understanding of selected areas of contemporary Scottish Conveyancing law and Practice, including the catalogue of real rights available under Scots law, issues arising from boundary disputes, the difficulties arising from landlocked land, the importance of prescription (both positive and negative), aspects of the law of servitudes, an insight into the challenges facing the legal profession, a selection of recent developments in conveyancing practice and the offside goals rule.

Main Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

By the end of the course the student should know:

• The essential characteristics of property transfer;
• The methods by which major legal systems deal with property transfer;
• The distinctions between original and derivative acquisition of real rights;
• The implications of Sharp v Thomson, Burnett’s Trustee v Grainger and Moncrieff v Jamieson.
• Registration systems relative to land;
• The methods of dealing with overriding interests;
• The relevance of servitudes to a development context;
• The doctrines by which a real right may be distinguished from a personal right; and
• The main aim is to examine in greater depth than is possible in the general class, issues arising in the law of conveyancing. While the detail of the existing rules is important, it will also be important to consider their practical and economic effect. Another principal aim is to foster the ability to conduct independent research taking account of relevant legislation and judicial precedent. This necessarily involves self-motivated learning and the habit of regularly checking Current Law and the journals. By the end of the course you will have developed knowledge of some of the practical and theoretical issues currently arising in property and conveyancing and possible approaches to reform.
• Subject-Specific Skills and Concepts
• (a) The ability to examine a title to land;
• (b) The ability to categorise and analyse rights in land;
• (c) The ability and skill to modifying rights to land within legal limits.
• Key Skills (Transferable)
• The skills which a student will acquire by the end of the course include the following:
• The ability to distinguish the relevant from the irrelevant;
• The ability to bring together information and materials from a variety of different sources;
• The critical judgement of the merits of particular arguments and the ability to make a reasoned choice between alternative solutions;
• The ability to think at a conceptual level and to simplify and to develop and apply frameworks and models;
• The ability to act independently in undertaking tasks in the areas of law you have studied;
• The ability to reflect on your learning;
• The ability to seek and make use of feedback.
• Content
• The honours conveyancing course examines in detail complex issues arising from contemporary property transactions. This includes the list of real rights available in Scots law (the numerous clausus principle) and its possible extension, tenemental property regimes, boundary disputes and settlement of boundary issues, land registration, real burdens and servitudes, restrictions on the use of land, the use of trusts to emulate real rights, the methods of transmission of property (including missives and electronic conveyancing) and the practical application of conveyancing theory to practice.

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

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