Property Rights in Money

Property Rights in Money is a systematic study of how proprietary interests in (ownership of and transactions in) money are transferred and enforced as part of a payment transaction. The book begins by considering the different kinds of property recognised by the law which perform the economic functions of money. It describes how the nature of an owner's proprietary interest differs depending on the kind of property that is treated as money. The main body of the work provides a detailed account of how property rights in money are transferred from one person to another, and the proprietary consequences when a transfer of money is ineffective. For example, the work considers the consequences for the passing of property in money when a person pays the money by mistake, through the fraud of another or through a breach of his or her duties as a trustee or a company director. The author provides a coherent explanation of the proprietary effect of money transfers whether made via a transfer of coins or banknotes or, as is now more common, through a bank payment system. The final section of the book considers how a person can enforce his property rights in money, and the legal remedies open to him to recover his money once it is in the hands of a person who is not entitled to it.

1. Money As Property ; Legal and economic conceptions of money ; Money in the law of personal property ; Primary concepts in explaining property in money ; Incorporeal assets in the law of property ; The corporeal view of money as a cause of confusion ; De-physicalization of money ; Scope of the book ; 2. Explaining the Property Rights Regime Applied to Money ; The relevance of law to supporting the economic functions of money ; Economics and the allocation of property rights in money ; Preventing divergence between the functions of money as a unit of account and as a medium of exchange ; The reality of the economic model ; 3. Derivative Transfers of Title: General Principles ; Main features of derivative transfers of title ; Practical limitations on the explanation of derivative transfers of title to money ; The payer's title before the transfer ; Transfer of legal title by delivery ; Transfer of legal title other than by delivery ; The validity of the underlying transaction and the effectiveness of the intention to transfer ownership ; 4. Void Derivative Transfers of Title to Corporeal Money ; Abstraction and void underlying transactions ; Incapacity to transfer ; Void transfers owing to absence of negativing of intention: general ; Absence of intention ; Mistake negativing of intention ; Mistake negativing intention in equity ; 5. Derivative Transfers of Title to Incorporeal Money ; Money transfers through a payment mechanism ; Property and transfers through a payment mechanism ; Difference one: the originator's title is not transferred ; Difference two: the beneficiary takes the legal title to the money transferred despite defects in originator's intention to make the payment ; Difference three: explaining the priority of interests after a transfer of bank money ; Vitiated transfers of incorporeal money: general principles ; Unauthorised substitution and proprietary interests in the proceeds of a vitiated transfer ; The effect of vitiating reasons at law and in equity on the transfer of incorporeal money ; 6. Voidable Derivative Transfers of Title to Money ; Voidable transfers and rescission: general ; The proprietary character of the payer's right to rescind ; 7. Mixtures of Money ; Proprietary effect of mixtures of corporeal money ; Proprietary effect of mixtures of incorporeal money ; 8. The Currency of Money ; Currency and the extinction of adverse titles ; Currency and bona fide purchase ; The elements of bona fide purchase for value ; 9. Enforcement of Title to Money ; Enforcement of title through the law of wrongs and restitution ; Enforcement of legal title to money ; Enforcement of equitable title to money