Land Law: Text and Materials

Author: Nigel P. Gravells

Price: £34.95

Edition: 4th Edition (July 2010)

ISBN: 978-0-421-96360-3

Buy from Sweet & Maxwell: Click Here

Many students struggle with land law given its mix of statutory provisions and common law.  If that was not enough, students also need to grapple with registered and unregistered systems and also different types of interests.  And this is only scratching the surface!  To try and overcome these problems, Nigel Gravells' Land Law: Text and Materials aims to combine the best features of a standard textbook with those of a cases and material book to provide a comprehensive coverage of this area of law.  It largely achieves this ambitious aim.

In this new edition of Land Law: Text and Materials, coming some six years since the last edition, Gravells has updated the text to include more than one hundred new articles and casenotes in the major academic journals.  He has also tackled many of the key cases and legislative developments including the Consumer Credit Act 2006 and the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010.  Being a consumer lawyer I was, however, disappointed to note that it inaccurately states that the extortionate credit bargain test continues "to apply to pre-April 2007 agreements, subject to the limitation period of 12 years".  This is, in fact, incorrect: the High Court recently confirmed in Soulsby & Soulsby v FirstPlus Financial Group plc & Another [2010] that the extortionate credit bargain test only applies to agreements that complete before 6 April 2008.

Land Law: Text and Materials is separated into nine chapters: introductory topics; title deeds conveyancing; registration of title; trusts of land; leases; licences and proprietary estoppel; easements; covenants affecting freehold land; and mortgages of land.  Each chapter is then sub-divided into a number of discrete topics.  The format is fairly similar throughout the text: a standard textbook approach which is regularly interspersed with extracts from cases or other materials.  Importantly, Gravells includes a number of notes at the end of each extract which list relevant points and are cross-referenced to other provisions, cases or materials.  These are excellent and really drive home the important points to the reader.

For many students, Gravells' Land Law: Text and Materials will be an indispensible and clear guide to this complex and difficult area of law.  There is always a danger that such texts become too swayed either to text or materials: fortunately, this text is extremely well-balanced.  It is disappointing that there are some minor issues where Gravells delves into non-land law issues but he has, rather refreshingly, included separate and detailed chapters on key practical issues of mortgages over land, easements and covenants and leases.  These topics are sometimes overlooked at undergraduate level but are vital for any practitioner.  Students either struggling with land law or wanting to maximise their prospects of achieving good grades with coursework should seriously consider this text.

Reviewed on 16 January 2011

© Student Law Journal, 2001 - All Rights Reserved

Home | News | Academic Articles | Practitioner Articles | Editorial Board | Article Submission | Contact | Links | Book Reviews