possession in the common law - HiddenMysteries Information Central

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PREFACE.
THE want of any systematic account of Possession in English law-books has often been remarked upon. A few years
ago, in the course of my work on the law of Torts, I had to consider the learning of Trespass, Conversion, and other
wrongs to property; for which purpose it became necessary to face the question whether a doctrine of Possession did not
exist in an implicit form in our authorities, and if so, what kind of doctrine it was. I then learnt that, several years earlier,
Mr. R. S. Wright had been confronted with a like problem in a survey of our criminal law, and had made a full study of
the subject in that connexion. Upon communication with Mr. Wright it appeared that he had collected his materials in a
form nearly ready for publication; and, in the result, the present work was undertaken.
It is a composite, not a joint work. We should have preferred for many reasons to combine our researches in a single
and uniform exposition, but we found that such a plan would require an amount not only of continuous but of
simultaneous leisure beyond what we could command. Accordingly we have been content to divide the work as it now
stands; and, although we have discussed many parts of the subject together, and seen one another’s contributions in every
stage, each of us is alone answerable for that which is ascribed to him on the title-page. Whatever defects are the
necessary consequence of this arrangement may be taken as confessed, with the excuse that the substance, be its value
more or less, could not have been produced on any other terms. This being so, we have not thought it needful to reduce
the mechanical details of citation, abbreviation, and the like, to a complete uniformity throughout the book.
Our purpose has been to show that a fairly consistent body of principles is contained in the English authorities, not to
exhibit all the applications of those principles, nor to enter on the comparison of the Common Law with any other
system. Speaking for myself, I feel that I owe much both to the classical Roman texts on Possession and to the ingenuity
of their modern expounders in Germany. But I have also felt that if there is, as I believe there is, a native doctrine of
Possession in our law, the only way to make it manifest is to state it on its own independent footing and verify it in its
own light. Comparison is profitable after the several things to be compared have been ascertained; if attempted earlier, it
is hazardous at best.
Each of us has been compelled to form and express his own opinions on difficult and unsettled points. We cannot
expect those opinions to be always accepted by the reader, but in any case they are not unconsidered.
LINCOLN’S INN, Michaelmas, 1888.
F. P.