Robust Separation:A search for a generic framework to simplify registration and trading of interests in natural resources

This report is about the search for an economically efficient and equitable system of defining, allocating, and managing use of natural resources that proves to be robust. Robust in the sense that the fundamental principles and foundations upon which it is based remains unchanged over time. We focus on the notion of “interests” in natural resources, and obligations associated with use. We search for a generic robust approach to the definition of interests, rights and use obligations that sits comfortably within an economically efficient trading system. Pricing and charging issues and the question of how to convert from existing systems to the proposed one are left for subsequent reports.audit;Australia;natural resource management

Electronic titling: Potential and risks

Initiatives in electronic conveyancing and registration show the potential of new technologies to transform such systems, reducing costs and enhancing legal security. However, they also incur substantial risks of transferring costs and risks among registries, conveyancers and rightholders, instead of reducing them; entrenching the private interests of conveyancers, instead of increasing competition and disintermediating them; modifying the allocation of tasks in a way that leads in the long term to the debasement of registries of rights with indefeasible title into mere recordings of deeds; and empowering conveyancers instead of transactors and rightholders, which increases costs and reduces security. Fulfilling the promise of new technologies in both costs and security requires strengthening registries’ incentives and empowering rightholders in their interaction with registries.Electronic Conveyancing, Electronic Registration, Lawyers, Notaries, Digital Signatures

Torrens and Customary Land Tenure: a Case Study of the Land Titles Registration Act 2008 of Samoa

This article describes the customary land tenure in Samoa, and analyses the effects of the introduction of a Torrens system of land registration on the customary land tenure. In particular, it examines the registration of adjudicated customary land (customary land in respect of which judgment has been made by the Land and Titles Court) under the Land Titles Registration Act 2008, as well as the combined effect of the Taking of Land Act 1964 and Torrens registration on customary land. It argues that the LTRA 2008 may be repugnant to the Constitution and that the Torrens system is incompatible with customary land tenure. It recommends that the law expressly exclude customary land from the indefeasibility of title effect of the Torrens system

Is the Torrens System German?

Recently support has grown for the view that the Torrens system of lands titles registration, which has now spread to numerous jurisdictions throughout the world, was actually not Torrens's work at all, but a copy of a German system passed off by him as his own production. This article reviews the evidence, much of which is here discussed for the first time, and concludes that that view is incorrect. Torrens is entitled to the credit for conceiving the principles of the system; for drafting the bill to give effect to them (with the help of a circle of critical reviewers); and for convincing the public and politicians to support it.Greg Taylo

Implementation of Enacted Title by Registration Legislation in the Maritimes

Since my first contribution to this Journal upon the topic of title by registration,\u27 it is possible to report a further cascade of ink; the pilot project in Prince Edward Island, which was examined, has produced two statutes: (1) Land Titles Act, Nova Scotia;2 (2) Land Titles Act, New Brunswick.3 The Nova Scotia Act remains unproclaimed and makes no repeal of the first attempt at title by registration in 1903-4 which failed to obtain substantial converts even though proclaimed. 4 New Brunswick has taken the great leap into the unknown by proclaiming its statute on 1st January, 1984;5 amending it twice thereafter6 and repealing the failed initial enactment of 1914 which was never proclaimed.7 The Prince Edward Island Act8 remains unproclaimed. Given this background one can only fear for the prospect of a successful Torrens system in the Maritimes having regard also to the universal distaste with which it was greeted, at inception, by the legal profession and the inertia of that body. These observations are not wild charges: the books are filled with a legion of articles in proof and the citation of these is valueless

Of Titles and Testaments: Reflections of an American Reader of the \u3ci\u3eAdelaide Law Review\u3c/i\u3e

From the point of view of an American lawyer, two Australian innovations in the law of property stand out: titles by registration and the dispensing power in the law of wills. Both originated in South Australia, and both are the subject of articles in the Adelaide Law Review. Both spread rapidly to other Australian states and throughout the Commonwealth. But in the United States, despite some early success, neither achieved widespread adoption. Readers of the Adelaide Law Review, who doubtless view titles by registration and the dispensing power as obvious improvements on earlier property law, may be surprised by American exceptionalism. But in both cases the new entrants encountered entrenched practices which, while seemingly less eligible, nonetheless successfully resisted displacement