法律英语阅读理解：TheLawofProperty财产法.pdfVIP

法律英语阅读理解： The Law of Property 财 产法 The old common law1 was preeminently the law of real property ； and the distinction between “real property ” and “personal property3 ” was a crucial one. Generally speaking ， real property means real estate -1and and buildings but it also includes such things as growing crops. Everything else money， stocks and bonds ， jewelry ， cars ， carloads of lumber ， IOUs ， bank deposits- is personal property. We all have a stake in real estate ， since we all live somewhere； and we work ， study ， and travel somewhere， too. Everyone is a renter or an owner ， or lives with renters or owners. But for most of us ， that as far as the law is concerned the word property means primarily real property ； personal property is of minor importance. 第 1 页 共 10 页 Actually ， personal property is legally a minor field. There is no single ， special field of law devoted to personal property. Personal property is what contract law ， commercial law ， and bankruptcy law yes ， and torts ， too are all about. But there are so many special rilles about real estate that it makes sense to treat this as a separate field of law. Property law is still one of the fundamental branches of law ， and real estate is a significant branch of law practice. Yet property law is a mere shadow of its former self ， legal speaking. In fact ， one of the major developments in our system ， if you take the long view ， is the relative decline of real property law. In medieval England ， it would have only been a slight exaggeration to say that land law was the la