Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T22:35:16.083Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Tort of Conversion, by Sarah Green and John Randall QC. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009, xxv + 224 + (bibliography + index) 14pp (£55 hardback). ISBN 978-1-84113-833-6.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Phillip Morgan*
Affiliation:
University of Southampton

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Book Review
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Co (Nos 4 and 5)[2002] UKHL 19, [2002] 2 AC 883 at [129].

2. Ibid, at [39].

3. Douglas, S The nature of conversion’ (2009) 68(1) CLJ 198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Douglas gives the example of Jones, M Textbook on Torts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 8th edn, 2002).Google Scholar

4. Prosser, W The nature of conversion’ (1957) 42 Cornell Law Quarterly 168.Google Scholar

5. Birks, P Personal property: proprietary rights and remedies’ (2000) 11 KCLJ 1 at 2;Google Scholarsee also Douglas, above n 3.

6. It is however not the first treatise on conversion published in England. The reviewer has been able to locate two earlier treatises: A treatise of trover and conversion. Wherein the true motion of that action is stated, with the differences from other actions of the like nature, etc (London: printed by the assigns of Richard & Edw Atkyns for R V & R B sold by Tho Cater, 1696) and A treatise of trover and conversion; or, the law of actions on the case for torts and wrongs; wherein all the cases concerning such actions, are digested under their proper heads (London: printed by Eliz Nutt and R Gosling (assigns of E Sayer) for R Gosling, 2nd edn, 1721), this was first published in 1720, under another title.

7. The Tort of Conversion, p 1.

8. [2007] UKHL 21, [2008] 1 AC 1, a case in which John Randall QC was leading counsel for OBG.

9. 40 pages.

10. The Tort of Conversion, p 46.

11. Weir, T An Introduction to Tort Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd edn, 2006) p 165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. See Lee, J Confusio: reference to Roman law in the House of Lords and the development of English private law’ (2009) 5 RLT 24 at 52–58.Google Scholar

13. Tettenborn, A Conversion, tort and restitution’ in Palmer, N and McKendrick, E (eds) Interests in Goods (London: Informa, 2nd edn, 1998) p 825.Google Scholar

14. The Tort of Conversion, p 75.

15. Ibid, p 218; there are no other requirements.

16. Ibid, p 76.

17. Ibid, p 78.

18. Tettenborn, A Wrongful interference with goods’ in Dugdale, A and Jones, M (eds) Clerk and Lindsell on Torts (London: Sweet and Maxwell, 19th edn, 2006) para 1729.Google Scholar

19. Douglas, above n 3, at 209.

20. For example Dugdale and Jones, above n 18, para 17-07, gives a definition which requires deliberate dealing ‘in a manner inconsistent with another's right whereby that other is deprived of the use and possession of it’.

21. Ibid, para 17-59.

22. The Tort of Conversion, p 98; cf N Curwen ‘Title to sue in conversion’ (2004) Conv 308 at 316–317, who argues that this would replace the fault-based liability in Lumley v Gye (1853) 2 El & Bl 216 with strict liability: ‘There can be no justification for introducing additional strict liability into commercial dealings where it is extremely difficult to discover a third person's interest in goods’.

23. The Tort of Conversion, p 106.

24. Green, S To have and to hold? Conversion and intangible property’ (2008) 71(1) MLR 114;CrossRefGoogle ScholarS Green ‘Can a digitised product be the subject of conversion’[2006] LMCLQ 568.

25. The Tort of Conversion, p 118, often referred to as software.

26. Ibid, pp 118–119.

27. Additionally, title to sue requires possession or an immediate right to possession.

28. M Bridge Personal Property Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3rd edn, 2002) p 3.

29. Ibid, p 4.

30. The Tort of Conversion, p 128.

31. Ibid, p 132.

32. At [97].

33. P Morgan ‘Mitigation and conversion’[2010] LMCLQ 220.

34. The Tort of Conversion, p 222.

35. Ibid, p 217.

36. Birks, above n 5.