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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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