My article, published this year in the Law Quarterly Review, forms part of my wider research agenda examining historical and contemporary challenges to property and land law. This article focuses on the reform to the law of severance, and how an examination of the discrete avenues for reform highlighted serves as a catalyst to make the modern case for abolition of equitable joint tenancies in English and Welsh property law.

Poland operates under a continental legal system, which has strong roots in Roman law. This influence is particularly visible in the approach to property rights in Poland. Accordingly, the provisions of the Polish Civil Code—governing, among others, property law—are inspired by certain Roman legal principles. For example, Article 143 of the Polish Civil Code reflects the principle of superficies solo cedit, which means that what is on the land belongs to the land. Pursuant to the aforementioned article of the Polish Civil Code, within the boundaries defined by the socio-economic purpose of the land, ownership of the land extends to the space above and below its surface. This means that, as a rule in Poland, the landowner also owns everything above and below the land’s surface.

There’s a new subject for debate in the blockchain world: asset tokenization. More specifically, the conversation is around whether asset tokenization – the process of turning ownership rights in physical things into tradable digital tokens – actually does what it promises.