History of the most important statute in English land law, and of a myth about it.

What is it about?

There is a myth that, particularly in its 'overreaching' provisions, the Law of Property Act 1925 incarnates market liberalism. It clearly doesn't, if one reads the statute properly; but the myth has led to misreading and eventually to some unfortunate judgments. This paper looks at the development of the myth and at the actual legislative history-- the series of bills from 1920 to 1924, Parliamentary debate about them, and commentary at the time-- and in the context of English political history in the early 20th century. It then looks at judgments interpreting the overreaching provisions, which remained on the right track until 2015.

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Why is it important?

This article is important in making clear what the overreaching provisions of the LPA 1925 mean and how they are intended to work, and in illuminating the basic character of the LPA 1925-- and of English land law as a whole. It is also important in showing that legal history cannot be ignored if we want to understand our current law, in practice, today; showing that we need to pay attention to political history when trying to understand legislation; and raising a warning about what happens when law academics fail to pay proper attention to the law or to history.

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