A common law right

6.1          The common law has long regarded a person’s property rights as fundamental. William Blackstone said in 1773: ‘There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination, and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property.’^[1]

6.2          However, many laws have been made that interfere with property rights. This chapter discusses the source and rationale of the protection of vested property rights; how these rights are protected from statutory encroachment; and when laws that interfere with these rights may be justified.

6.3          The ALRC calls for submissions on two questions about these rights.

6.4          In his Commentaries, Blackstone called the right to property an absolute right,^[2] anchored in the Magna Carta (1215), and described the limited power of the legislature to encroach upon it in terms that are still reflected in laws today:

The third absolute right, inherent in every Englishman, is that of property: which consists in the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his acquisitions, without any control or diminution, save only by the laws of the land  … The laws of England are … extremely watchful in ascertaining and protecting this right. Upon this principle the great charter has declared that no freeman shall be disseised, or divested, of his freehold, or of his liberties, or free customs, but by the judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.

So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community. If a new road, for instance, were to be made through the grounds of a private person, it might perhaps be extensively beneficial to the public; but the law permits no man, or set of men, to do this without consent of the owner of the land … Besides, the public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual’s private rights, as modelled by the municipal law. In this and similar cases the legislature alone can, and indeed frequently does, interpose, and compel the individual to acquiesce. But how does it interpose and compel? Not by absolutely stripping the subject of his property in an arbitrary manner; but by giving him a full indemnification and equivalent for the injury thereby sustained … All that the legislature does is to oblige the owner to alienate his possessions for a reasonable price; and even this is an exertion of power, which the legislature indulges with caution, and which nothing but the legislature can perform.^[3]

6.5          Arguably, for many centuries the common law principles reflected a view that the rights of property owners were more deserving of protection than the personal rights of liberty and safety of non-property owners.^[4]

6.6          Property and possessory rights are explicitly protected by the law of torts and by criminal laws and are given further protection by rebuttable presumptions in the common law as to statutory interpretation, discussed below. An interference with real property in the possession of another may give rise to the tort of trespass to land or of nuisance.  In Entick v Carrington (1765), Lord Camden LCJ said:

By the laws of England, every invasion of private property, be it ever so minute, is a trespass. No man can set his foot upon my ground without my licence, but he is liable to an action, though the damage be nothing … If he admits the fact, he is bound to shew by way of justification, that some positive law has empowered or excused him.^[5]

6.7          These rights have long been exercisable against the Crown or government officers acting outside their lawful authority. After citing the passage above, Mason CJ, Brennan and Toohey JJ in Plenty v Dillon (1991) said that the principle in Entick v Carrington ‘applies to entry by persons purporting to act with the authority of the Crown as well as to entry by other persons’.^[6] Their honours then quoted Lord Denning adopting a quotation from the Earl of Chatham:

The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail—its roof may shake—the wind may blow through it—the storm may enter—the rain may enter—but the King of England cannot enter—all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.’ So be it—unless he has justification by law.^[7]

6.8          Similarly, in Halliday v Nevill (1984), Brennan J said:

The principle applies alike to officers of government and to private persons. A police officer who enters or remains on private property without the leave and licence of the person in possession or entitled to possession commits a trespass and acts outside the course of his duty unless his entering or remaining on the premises is authorized or excused by law.^[8]

6.9          Implicit in this statement of the law is the recognition that the law—common law or statute—may authorise entry onto private property. Examples of such statutes are discussed in Chapter 7, which deals with laws authorising what would otherwise be a tort.

6.10       Similarly, the common law provides protection against unauthorised interference or detention of chattels. Entick v Carrington^[9] concerned not just an unauthorised search but also a seizure of private papers. Wilkes v Wood (1763)^[10] set out enduring common law principles against unauthorised search and seizure, later reflected in the 4^th amendment to the United States Constitution.

6.11       Unauthorised interferences with chattels may be a trespass or conversion of the chattels, while unauthorised detention, even if initially authorised by statute, may give rise to tort actions in conversion or detinue once that authority has lapsed. For example, in National Crime Authority v Flack (1998), the plaintiff, Mrs Flack successfully sued the National Crime Authority and the Commonwealth for the return of money found in her house and seized by the National Crime Authority. Heerey J noted a common law restriction on the seizure of property under warrant:

[A]t common law an article seized under warrant cannot be kept for any longer than is reasonably necessary for police to complete their investigations or preserve it for evidence. As Lord Denning MR said in Ghani v Jones [1970] 1 QB 693 at 709: ‘As soon as the case is over, or it is decided not to go on with it, the article should be returned.’^[11]

What is vested property?

6.12       The idea of property is multi-faceted. The term ‘property’ is used in common and some legal parlance to describe types of property, that is, both real and personal property. ‘Real’ property encompasses interests in land and fixtures or structures upon the land. ‘Personal’ property encompasses both tangible things—chattels or goods—and certain intangible legal rights,^[12] such as copyright and other intellectual property rights,^[13] shares in a corporation, beneficial rights in trust property, rights in superannuation^[14] and some contractual rights, including, for example, many debts.^[15]

6.13       In law, the term ‘property’ is perhaps more accurately or commonly used to describe types of rights. Dealing with a term ‘property’ in a particular Act, the High Court of Australia said:

In [the Act], as elsewhere in the law, ‘property’ does not refer to a thing; it is a description of a legal relationship with a thing. It refers to a degree of power that is recognised in law as power permissibly exercised over the thing. The concept of property may be elusive. Usually it is treated as a bundle of rights.^[16]

6.14       For land and goods, both of which may be possessed by someone other than the owner,^[17]property rights in the sense of ownership must be distinguished from mere possession of the land or goods, even though the latter may give some rise to qualified legal rights^[18] and from mere contractual rights affecting the property. The particular right may be regarded as ‘proprietary’ even though it is subject to certain rights of others in respect of the same property: a tenancy of land, for example, gives the tenant rights that are proprietary in nature as well as possessory.

6.15       A ‘property right’ may take different forms depending on the type of property. Implicit in a property right, generally, are all or some of the following rights: the right to use or enjoy the property, the right to exclude others, and the right to sell or give away.^[19] Property rights also depend on the statutory framework of laws and property rights affecting the particular type of property, for example, the system of land tenure in a particular state or territory, or a scheme such as the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth); and the interaction between that statutory scheme and the common law.

6.16       The ALRC’s Terms of Reference refer to ‘vested property rights’. ‘Vested’ is primarily a technical legal term to differentiate a presently existing interest from a contingent interest.^[20] However, particularly in the United States, the term has acquired rhetorical force in reinforcing the right of the owner not to be deprived of the property arbitrarily or unjustly by the state^[21] or, in disputes over land use, to reflect the confrontation between the public interest in regulating land use and the private interest of the owner—including a developer—in making such lawful use of the land as he or she desires.^[22] The tension is particularly strong with respect to retrospective legislation.^[23]