LLB Law and Property 1: Land Law
Human Rights Update
The Human Rights Act 1998 came in to force on October 2nd 2000. The act incorporates into domestic law many of the provisions of the European Convention Of human Rights. The UK Government was heavily involved in the drafting of the ECHR, and it was one of the first to sign it and the first to ratify it in 1951. Furthermore, since 1966, the UK has accepted the rights of individuals to petition the Strasbourg authorities in respect of alleged breaches of the Convention. Yet those rights have not themselves been part of, nor actionable within our legal system. The reason argued repeatedly was that there was no conflict between any of the provisions of the Convention and UK domestic law.
In the area of conveyancing there were no significant changes except the change of adverse possession which was in doubt. The case which lined the concept of doubt in adverse possession was the decision of Beaulane Properties Limited v Palmer [2005] EWHC 1460 (Ch). In this case the claimant company, Beaulane, was the registered owner of green belt land near to Heathrow Airport. Beaulane sought an injunction to prevent the defendant, Mr Palmer, from entering or using the land. In response, Mr Palmer asserted that, as he had enclosed the land and used the land for the grazing of horses for more than 12 years (from October 1986 to October 1998), he had acquired adverse title to the land. Mr Palmer had originally used the land with the permission of the owner but by October 1986 the licence had expired and Mr Palmer had from then on been in possession as a trespasser. Beaulane alternatively asserted that even if Mr Palmer had enjoyed exclusive possession from 1986, time did not begin to run until the end of June 1991, so that the 12 year period for adverse possession ended in June 2003 and Mr Palmer therefore held the land on trust for Beaulane. Beaulane relied on the provisions of the Human Rights Act 1998 effective on 2...