The Law of Personal Property Security

This exciting book is an authoritative text on the complex law of personal property security and the registration of company charges. Personal property security is an important subject in commercial practice, as it is the key to much of the law of banking and sale. This work explains traditional methods of securing debts (such as mortgages, charges, and pledges) on property other than land, describes how these are created, how they must be registered (or otherwise "perfected") if they are to be valid, the rights and duties of the parties and how the security is enforced if the debt is not paid. The authors identify areas of uncertainty and give guidance to possible resolutions of any uncertainties using case law --including authorities from Commonwealth jurisdictions (Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to illustrate points made. The work also explains how "priority" disputes between competing interests over the same property are resolved. In addition it covers the law governing other transactions that perform a similar economic function (such as finance leases, retention of title clauses, and sales of a company's book debts). These are not currently treated by the law as security and are therefore subject to different rules on perfection, priority, and enforcement.