The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

B OOK

R E V I E W S

GAZETTE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1996

Property Law

By Paul Coughlan, LL.M., B.L.,

published by Gill &Macmillan;

paperback; 477pp; £35.

When this reviewer was a student, the

only book on the law of property

which catered to any degree for

(

the

Irish lawyer's special needs (though it

devoted scarcely more than twenty

pages to Irish peculiarities), was

Strahan and Baxter's

Law of Property.

In view of the extraordinary

expansion in the publication of books

on Irish law now taking place, we

need not be unduly surprised that we

now have a third work devoted

exclusively to the Irish law of real

property. But whether or not this

comes as a surprise, the question

arises: is there room for a third work

where the subject's readership is

already well served by the volumes of

Prof. Wylie and Dr. Lyall?

In terms of the number of cases

mentioned,

Property Law

cites about

half as many cases as Lyall's

Land

Law in Ireland

and about a quarter as

many as Wylie's

Irish Land Law.

One

of the reasons for this is that Coughlan

does not venture as far beyond the

heartland of real property as the others

do. Unlike Wylie, he has no chapters

on trusts, powers or merger and,

unlike Lyall, there are no chapters on

ownership above and below the

ground, the Irish Land Purchase Acts,

housing or planning but, like Lyall

and unlike Wylie, there is a chapter on

family law.

Despite these drawbacks, this

reviewer recommends

Property Law,

not merely as a substitute to those for

whom the vastness of Wylie and Lyall

is somewhat forbidding, but as a

desirable third work for practitioners.

Whilst this review was being

prepared, it was necessary for the

reviewer to look up the law on several

topics. Not only

Property Law

but the

other two works were consulted and

their treatment of these topics

compared. On leases for lives

renewable for ever, as might be

expected, Coughlan was rudimentary.

He was, however, excellent on sales

by mortgagees in pursuance of their

statutory powers.

It was only when his treatment of the

implied release of easements was

examined that the real value of his

book, even for those who possess

Wylie and Lyall, came to be

appreciated. Both of the latter seem

uncertain and perhaps even

contradictory on the question whether

mere non-user extinguishes an

easement.

Property Law,

however,

unhesitatingly, summarises the

position in a graphic sentence:-

Benn

Hardinge\

where the

right had not been used for 175

years, the English Court of Appeal

rejected the argument that non-

user for twenty years raised a

presumption of abandonment.

Even when indecision is academically

justified, students and practitioners

prefer their authors to decisively cut

the Gordian knot!

On the question whether the

extinguishment of an easement can

arise where the dominant tenement is

altered in such a way as to vary

unilaterally the extent of the benefit

derived from it, Coughlan alone,

mentions the important case of

Graham v. Philcox

in which the

English Court of Appeal held that

where an excessive burden is placed

on the servient tenement the easement

remains in existence but the servient

owner may have the excessive user

injuncted.

The impression left on this reviewer is

that

Property Law

is no mere

summary of a subject covered more

authoritatively by Wylie and Lyall but

an original work not unworthy of its

distinguished predecessors.

Prof. J.M.G.

Sweeney

Reference:

1. [1992] MLJ 1534.

2. [1984] QB 747.

Copinger and Skone James

on Copyright

First supplement to the Thirteenth

Edition. By K. Garnett, Sir J.

Mummery, J.R. James, London;

Sweet & Maxwell; 1994 xlvii +

474pp £45.00; paperback.

This piece is intended as a short notice

to those practitioners who have an

interest in copyright law and who may

already possess

Copinger and Skone

James on Copyright.

Edmund Skone James died on June

23, 1992 scarcely six months after the

thirteenth edition of

Copinger and

Skone James on Copyright

was

published. For over thirty years and

through five editions he edited the

book first with his father, then on his

own, and of late at the head of an

editorial team. He had an

encyclopedic knowledge of the

subject and devoted painstaking

attention to detail.

Copinger and Skone James on

Copyright

has been described as a

definitive work and indispensable

book for the practitioner involved in

the increasingly important area of

was described as unrivalled in its

scope and authority. Of course, the

book deals with English law. But as

many practitioners in Ireland are

aware, this book on copyright will be

found on the libraries of those

practitioners who are interested in