Fig. 8: A limited property right in English law.

4.2. Common law and Equity

As a result of historical developments, English law consists of two sub-systems: Common law and Equity.16 A consequence of this division is the existence of legal as well as of equitable property rights.17 This division into sub-systems does not prevent application of the SystemCube. The depth of the Cube represents the range of property rights. The content of the right determines just how deep that dimension is. There is no reason why this range of property rights cannot contain both the legal and the equitable rights. Furthermore, the fact that a person holds a property right at Common law or in Equity results in the application of different rules on enforcement, registration, etc., in other words: in the application of a different operating system. However, a change in the operating rules does not change the parameters of the System-Cube.

5. Concluding remarks

I started this essay by describing the problem how to find out what constitutes property law at the level of the European Community. I stated that finding out what European property law is, is only possible by knowing what property law is in general. The model presented above indicates the general characteristics of any property law system, but it can also account for the variables of specific property rights in specific national property law systems. One could debate about whether the visualisation chosen is the correct one; that remains a matter of preference. The underlying model, however, always remains the same: a system of property law consists of a core representing the property rights and an operating system around it regulating those rights. The core in turn has three dimensions (width – objects; depth – rights; height – time) and in each system the shape of these dimensions shifts depending on the variables that make up a particular property right.

With the model of the System-Cube, I will in time be able to give an answer to the question, how to make a selection of the acquis communautaire and on the basis of what criteria, in order to determine what constitutes property law at a European level. I will however not do

16See e.g. G.C. Cheshire, E.H. Burn, J. Cartwright, Cheshire and Burn’s Modern Law of Real Property (Oxford: OUP 2006), 17th edn., p. 42.

17Akkermans (2008), p. 336.

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so at this point, since it could only be a preliminary conclusion that might change during the time of the research project for which this question needs to be answered. However, the model can be used to answer a variety of questions other than the one that led me to develop it in the first place. It could for instance also be used as a teaching method, to show students what the system behind property law looks like, before starting to study the property law of a particular country in detail. In short, anyone who needs a model that describes the different building blocks of a property law system in general can use the System-Cube.

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