Movable Property

• Author: Stephen G.A. Pitel/Nicholas S. Rafferty
• Profession: Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario/Faculty of Law, University of Calgary
• Pages: 329-339

329

CHAP TER 18

MOVABLE PROPERTY

A. I NTRODUC TION

The previous two chapters have explained the nature of property in

the conf‌lict of laws and the choice of law rules for immovable property.

This chapter covers the choice of law rules for movable property, some-

times referred to as movables. The central issue is to determine what

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

arises in m any different contexts, including the f‌indi ng of property,

gifts, transfers pursuant to contract, and disposition on death. The la st

of these contexts is considered s eparately in Chapter 19. The focus of

this chapter is on inter vivos transfers— transfers made when the trans-

feror is alive — of movable property.

When property is tran sferred 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 part ies. The con-

tract could contain expre ss language on th is issue, but most contracts

do not. So in those case s the law of contract will govern many aspects

of the transfer, but the law of movable property will govern the i ssue of

ownership. Some commentators have suggested that this separation of

issues is unhelpful, b ecause it could lead to different but highly related

aspects of a single tran sfer being governed by different, and potentially

conf‌licting, applicable laws. While the common law separates contract

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

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