The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I. Frederic William Maitland

Seignorial rights in the boroughs, Customary private law, Emancipation of serfs, Freedom from toll, The firma burgi, What was farmed, The farm of the vill and the soil of the vill, Lands of the borough, Waste land, The borough’s revenue, Chattels of the borough, Elective officers, Borough courts and councils, By-laws and self-government, Limits to legislative powers, Enforcement of by-laws, Rates and taxes, The borough’s income, Tolls, The gild merchant, The formation of a gild, The gild and the government of the borough, Objects of the gild, The gild and the burgesses, The gild courts, The borough as a franchise-holder

      Corporate character of the borough community, Corporateness not bestowed by the king, Gild-like structure of the community, Admission of burgesses, The title to burgherhood

      The “subject” in the borough charters, Discussion of the charters, Charters for the borough, the county and the whole land, Charters and laws, The burgesses as co-proprietors, The community as bearer of rights, Inheritance, succession and organization, Criminal liability of the borough, Civil liability, The communities in litigation, Debts owed to the community, The common seal, The borough’s property, The borough’s property in its tolls, The ideal will of the borough, The borough corporation, The communities and the nation

       Chapter IV. Ownership and Possession

       § 1. Rights in land,

      Distinction between movables and immovables,, Is land owned?

      Ownership and lordship,, Ownership and feudal theory,

      Tenancy in fee and life tenancy,, The tenant in fee,, The life tenant, Position of the life tenant, Tenant for life and the law of waste, Tenant for life and public law, Seisin of tenant for life, Tenants for life in litigation

      The doctrine of estates, The estate and the forma doni, The power of the gift, The form of the gift a law for the land, The gift to a man and his heirs, Duration of a fee, Limited gifts

      The maritagium, Gift to a man and the heirs of his body, The conditional fee, History of the conditional fee, Statutory protection of conditional gifts

      Settlements in the thirteenth century, Joint tenancies, Reversion and remainder, [p.22]Remainders after life estates, Reversion and escheat, Remainders after conditional fees

      Gifts upon condition, The form of the gift and testamentary power, Influence of the forma doni

       Note on the conditional fee

       § 2. Seisin

      Seisin, Seisin and possession, Sitting on land, Technicalities of seisin, Seisin and remedies, Seisin of chattels, Contrast between seisin and proprietary rights, Seisin and enjoyment .

      Who is seised?, Case of tenant in villeinage, Case of termor, Case of guardian, Case of tenant for life, Case of the lord, Case of reversioner, Infants and communities, General doctrine of seisin

      Protection of possession, Modern theories, Possession and criminal law, Possession and the law of tort, Possession as a bulwark of property, Possession as a kind of right, Contrast between various principles, The various principles in English law, Disseisin as an offence, Disseisin as a tort, Possessory action against the third hand, Proof of seisin and proof of ownership, Seisin as a root of title

      Introduction of possessory actions, The novel disseisin, Protection of wrongful seisin, Relativity of seisin, Novelty of the disseisin, “Unjustly and without judgment,”, Rigorous prohibition of self-help, Trespass and disseisin, Disseisin of absent possessor, Scope of the assize, The assize and the third hand

      The mort d’ancestor, A summary action, A possessory action, Seisin as of fee, Exclusion of proprietary pleas, Principle of the assize, Is seisin heritable?, Seisin in law, Acquisition of seisin by an abator, Scope of the assize

      The writs of entry, The writ of right, Invention of writs of entry, Writs sur disseisin, Scope of the action, The English possessorium and the canon law, Other writs of entry, Historical evolution of these writs, Their principle, Active and passive transmission, The doctrine of degrees, Are these writs possessory?

      The hierarchy of actions and of seisins, Is the writ of right possessory?, Relativity of ownership, Ancient history of ownership and possession, Seisin and “estates,”, Seisin and title

       § 3. Conveyance

      Modes of acquiring rights in land, No title by occupation

      No acquisitive prescription, Alluvion etc., Escheat, forfeiture, reversion

      The gift of land, Feoffment, Expression of the donor’s will, Livery of seisin, The ancient German conveyance, Symbolic livery, Anglo-Saxon land-books, Law in the Norman age, Demand for a real livery, Practice in the thirteenth century

       Royal conveyances

      The release, The quit-claim, The surrender, The change of estate, Gifts when the donor is not in occupation, Attornment, Feoffments with remainders, Charters of feoffment

      The fine, Origin of fines, Practice in the Norman age, Possession under a fine, Fines in the Angevin age, Procedure for levying a fine, Form of the fine, Advantages of a fine, Evidence secured, Action on a fine, The preclusive bar, The year and day, Value of the bar, The married woman’s fine, Conveyance of reversions, Family settlements

      The fine and seisin, A judgment gives no seisin, A fine gives none, The fine does not convey land, Return to seisin

       § 4. The Term of Years

      The term of years, Attempts to treat it as ius in personam, Insecurity of the termor, Failure of the old doctrine, The termor and the writ of trespass, Further protection of the termor, Seisin and possession, Explanation of the termor’s history, Early leases for years, Why the termor has no freehold, The termor and the farmer, Influence of Roman theory, The term as a chattel, Chattels real

       § 5. The Gage of Land

      Gage and wed, Antiquity of gages, Mortgage and vifgage

      Glanvill’s gage, Disappearance of the Glanvillian gage, The gage and the beneficial lease, The Bractonian gage, The classical mortgage, The mortgagee in possession

       § 6. Incorporeal Things

      Incorporeal things, Their thinglikeness, The seignory as a thing, Rights of lord against tenant, Contract and thing, Rights of lord against the world, Seisin of services, Conveyance of seignory, Rents as things, Various kinds of rents, Non-tenurial rents, Rents charge as things, Rents owed by land, The rent-owner and the world, Creation and transfer of rents, Annuities as things, Corodies as things, Offices as things, Advowsons as things, Actions for advowsons, Conveyance of advowsons, Seisin of advowsons, Rights of common as things, Possessory protection of rights of common, Law of prescription, Incorporeals acquired by prescription, Possessory protection of inchoate rights, Prescription for annuities, Prescription for franchises, Appurtenances and grosses, Easements and profits, Liberty and serfage as things, Marital rights and possession, Wardships as things, Landlikeness of the incorporeals

       § 7. Movable Goods

      Ownership and possession of chattels, Obscurity of the subject, Chattel and cattle, Pecuniary character of chattels, Possession of chattels, Is there any ownership of movables?, Specific recovery of goods in England, Foreign law: Mobilia non habent sequelam, Explanations of this rule

      The pursuit of thieves, The bailee pursues the thief, The bailor’s action against the bailee, Bracton’s actio furti, Procedure in the action, Scope of the action, Defences to the action, Defence of birth and rearing, Defence by voucher, Defence of honest purchase, Stolen goods recovered from the honest purchaser, Transformation of the action, Action of trespass de bonis asportatis, Scope of this action, No action of trespass against the third hand, Limitation of self-help .

      The bailment, The bailee and the wrong-doer, Liability of bailees, The bailor and the third hand, Action of detinue, Scope of detinue, No real action for movables, Has the bailor property?, Evolution of ownership, Pecuniary