CHAPTER 18 Movable Property

• Date: 07 April 2025

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CH AP TER 18

MOVABLE PROPERT Y

A. INTRODUCTION

Chapters 16 and 17 explained the nature of property in the conf‌lict of

laws and rules for immovable property. This chapter covers rules for

movable property, sometimes referred to as “movables.” For movable

property there are no special rules about jurisdiction and recognition

and enforcement. The central issue is choice of law, to determine what

law governs the issue of ownership of movable property. This issue arises

in many dierent contexts, including the f‌inding of property, gifts, trans-

fers pursuant to contract, and disposition on death. The last of these con-

texts is considered separately in Chapter 19. The focus of this chapter is

on inter vivos transfers — transfers made when the transferor is alive — of

movable property.

When property is transferred under a contract, the contract will

often be silent on issues of ownership, particularly the question of when

ownership of the property passes between the parties. The contract

could contain express language on this issue but most contracts do not.

So in those cases, the law of contract will govern many aspects of the

transfer but the law of movable property will govern the issue of owner-

ship. Some commentators have suggested that this separation of issues

is unhelpful because it could lead to dierent but highly related aspects

of a single transfer being governed by dierent, and potentially con-

f‌licting, applicable laws. Although the common law separates contract

and property issues, in a wholly domestic case one would expect those

areas of law to work together, complementing each other, to produce an

acceptable result. That interaction could be very dierent if, to resolve a