Australian property law
Australian Property Law is the system of laws regulating and prioritising the rights, interests and responsibilities of individuals in relation to "things". These things are a form of "property" or "right" to possession or ownership of an object. The law orders or prioritises rights and classifies property as either real and tangible, such as land, or intangible, such as the right of an author to their literary works or personal but tangible, such as a book or a pencil. The scope of what constitutes a thing capable of being classified as property and when an individual or body corporate gains priority of interest over a thing has in legal scholarship been heavily debated on a philosophical level.
Land law
Land is the predominant focus of Western property law, particularly Australian property law. Legal developments in this field outweigh the development of other forms of property law, this is primarily due to the high value of land in comparison to other forms of property, such as chattels. Each state in Australia has a different regime for the regulation and bureaucratisation of land. It is a largely statute based area of the law but can still be influenced by the common law and principles that originate from Australia's history as a colony of the United Kingdom, where land and estate law developed through the ambit of feudalism. Property law is enabling in that it creates a system for evidencing, recognizing and transferring title to land, facilitating its use as an economic instrument. Other legal instruments in property law that facilitate the private and commercial dealing of land include the mortgage, lease, covenant and easement.
Property legislation in all states is grounded upon the Torrens principle of registration of title. This posits that each state have a central register of all land in the state and that the register also show the 'owner' of the land. This system was devised to reduce the amount of fraud relating to land due to falsification of title deeds. The system also provides for registration of other entitlements to land such as a mortgage, by which land is used to secure a loan. Another major principle of this system is 'indefeasibility' of title - where a right has been entered on the register, it cannot be defeated by later rights except in certain circumstances.[1]
Table of Equivalents
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| State or Territory of Australia | Legislation regarding property | Legislation regarding Title |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Real Property Act 1900 | Conveyancing Act 1919 |
| Victoria | Transfer of Land Act 1958 | Land Titles Validation Act 1994 |
| Australian Capital Territory | Real Property Act 1925 | Land Titles Act 1925 |
| Queensland | Property Law Act 1974 | Land Titles Act 1994 |
| Northern Territory | Law of Property Act | Validation of Titles Act 1994 |
| South Australia | Law of Property Act 1936 | Real Property Act 1886 |
| Tasmania | Real Property Act 1862 | Land Titles Act 1980 |
| Western Australia | Property Law Act 1969 | Titles Validation Act 1994 |
The table above lists the core legislation in each jurisdiction of Australia regulating interests in land law in relation to property (negotiable instruments) and the scheme of registration (title).
Goods and chattels
Australia's law in relation to goods and chattels (items which are not land or intellectual property) relatively closely follows that of the United Kingdom. See Personal Property.
Intellectual property
Australia again closely follows the English traditions for Intellectual Property. Australia is a signatory of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and operates a system of automatic copyright (See article Australian copyright law. Other areas of Australian Intellectual property include Patents, Designs and plant breeders rights. See Intellectual Property
References
External links
- Australian Property Law - Law Council of Australia
- AUSTRALIAN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWS
- Conveyancing Melbourne
