The Gazette 1976

GAZETTE

of compulsory acquisition of land given to housing authorities by the Housing Act, 1966), or to the distinctive rating and valuation law in the Republic, which is an aspect of land law that calls for textbook treatment. However, those are lacunae that could be filled in by a supplement or in a future edition, as the author acknowledges in the preface. I have no hesitation in recommending practising solicitors to purchase this book. If the price seems high, it should be borne in mind that it does duty for, or brings up to date, much that is to be found in textbooks such as Kiely's Equity, Strahan and Baxter's Real Property, Deale's Landlord and Tenant , Cherry's Land Acts, Browning and Glover's Registration of Title, Madden's Registration of Deeds, as well as covering much ground not deal with, or not dealt with satis- factorily, in any other textbook. Apart from any claims it may have on the solicitors' profession because it was commissioned by the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland and sponsored by the Arthur Cox Foundation, on its own merits this book deserves a place on the shelves of every solicitor's office in this country. Ronan Keane, Senior Counsel For many years the Irish Lawyer when confronted with a difficult problem in Conveyancing or Real Property Law has reached for one of the distinguished English text books. If he chose an elderly edition of Williams, he found himself faced with a dismal thicket of unattractive chapter headings ("Of the nature of an estate tail . . .") which gave all too accurate an indication of the heartbreaking task ahead of finding a succinct and relevant answer to his problems. If he sought guidance in something more recent, such as Cheshire, he was likely to find himself even more frustrated by the formidable array of property legis- lation in England in the last 50 years which has no counterpart in the Republic of Ireland. It is, of course, not only a practitioners' problem: it is one for students as well. And the appearance of Mr. Wylie's book will on that account be doubly wel- come to the legal profession in this country. Here at least is a comprehensive survey of the whole of Irish Land Law, based on a refreshing modern approach which is immediately emphasised by the Author's abandonment of the irritating and misleading title, "Real Property". Mr. Wylie's remarkable industry has produced a work which deals with the entire corpus of statute and common law on this topic both in Northern Ireland and the Republic; but the lawyer in this jurisdiction will find that the value of the book to him is not in the slightest degree diminished by the fact that it also deals with the law in Northern Ireland. As Mr. Wylie demonstrates in his fascinating historical introduction, the development of the law of property in Ireland was closely interwoven with the political and social history of the island, and while the statute law North and South of the border has diverged in some important respects since 1921, the similarities based on a common historical origin are still far more important than the differences. Mr. Wylie, moreover, is invariably at pains to indicate where the law in the two jurisdictions has diverged, so that his book in this respect contains no pitfalls for lawyers in either jurisdiction. From the practitioners' point of view, the outstanding advantage of the book is a rather mundane one: the enormous number of references to authorities assembled

here for the first time in one volume, an achievement all the more valuable because it extends to decisions in all three relevant jurisdictions, the Republic, Northern Ireland and England. To which one must add a wealth of references to other text books and articles in learned journals. The practical fruits of Mr. Wylie's scholarship can also be illustrated by referring to his treatment of two topics. Chapter 3, under the general heading "Equity", contains a marvellous lucid account of the difficult doctrine of notice and priorities. And Part 5, dealing with mortgages, has compressed into 60 illuminating pages the fundamental principles of this vitally im- portant subject. Some indication has already been given of the scope of the work: its range extends to subjects as diverse as interference with easements and the rights of dis- inherited spouses under the Succession Act, 1965. Both systems of registration are carefully analysed and the author never loses sight of the impact of the system of registration of title on every aspect of Irish Land Law. While Wylie on Land Law will therefore become an indispensable part of every Irish Lawyer's library and as necessary a reference work in this area, as its distinguished namesake has been for many years in the field of practice and procedure, it also demonstrates by its very wealth of learning and penetrating analysis of the imperfections and anomalies with which our Land Law bristles, the compelling need for reform in this area. Derived from so many different sources and reflecting such a bewildering spectrum of different, and sometimes conflicting, social needs, it surely demands the attention of the legislator on a more comprehensive and less piecemeal basis than it has hitherto received. Obviously, there are other aspects of the Law which present graver and more immediate problems and will therefore probably attain a higher priority on the formidable agenda facing the Law Reform Commis- sion. Moreover, the ultimate nature of Land Law Reform in this jurisdiction has probably already been defined by the extension of compulsory registration of title under the Registration of Title Act, 1964. The designation of compulsory registration areas, a process which began in 1970, and the requirement in the 1964 Act that all land compulsorily acquired by a statutory authority should be registered, were significant advances in this direction. It will be inevitably a slow process and the existence of so many "pyramid" titles with a multiplicity of sub-interests (of which Mr. Wylie offers a chilling example worked out in practice) will make the task a daunting one, particularly in Dublin and Cork. In the meantime, however, there are surely reforms which could be introduced without too much legislative labour (particularly as there are frequently models in Northern Ireland and England). One obvious example is the Rule against Perpetuities. It is quite absurd that ten years after the law has been reformed in Northern Ireland, lawyers in the Republic, who are so frequently required nowadays to draft complicated discretionary trusts for fiscal reasons, have to struggle with the im- plications of the Rule and frequently fall back on the clumsy formula of the "Royal Lives" clause. Mr. Wylie leaves the irony of this situation speak for itself, contenting himself with an eloquent exclamation mark. It only remains to be said that the quality of the book's production reflects the highest credit, not only on the publishers, but on the Arthur Cox Foundation whose imaginative sponsorship of the work deserves nothing but praise.

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