PVL3701 summarised exam
notes 2023 updated and
complete.
,STUDY UNIT 1:
PROPERTY LAW DEFINITIONS:-
Law of things:
The law of things can be defined as a branch of private law which consists of
a number of legal rules that determine the nature, content, vesting,
protection, transfer and termination of various real relationships between a
legal subject and a thing, as well as the rights and duties ensuing from these
relationships.
Law:
That body of rules and norms which regulates and harmonizes society by
demarcating the rights and duties of legal subjects.
Right:
Rights deal with the lawful relationships between legal subjects and the
relationship between legal subjects and the objects of their rights.
Legal subject:
A legal subject can be defined as any person (whether a natural or a legal
person) capable of acting as a subject in legal relationships and of acquiring
rights and incurring duties in the process.
Human beings (natural persons) are the most common and best-known legal
subjects, but legal persons such as the State, universities, companies, close
corporations, and so on, are also legal subjects, since they can act as legal
subjects in legal relationships and can therefore acquire rights and duties.
Legal object:
A legal object can be defined as every object with which a legal subject has a
legally recognized relationship.
These legal objects may be divided into things, performances, immaterial
property and personality property.
Thing:
we define a thing as an independent part of the corporeal world, which is
external to humans and subject to human control, as well as useful and
valuable to humans.
Real remedy:
A real remedy can be defined as a legal process with its own purpose, for
which certain requirements are set and which protects, maintains or restores
a particular real relationship in a specific way.
A real remedy, therefore, finds application in lawful and unlawful real
relationships
,Real right:
a real right can be defined as a lawful real relationship between a legal
subject and a thing which confers direct control over the thing on the legal
subject, as well as the relationship between the legal subject and all other
legal subjects who must respect this relationship
Distinguish between:
Law of Property and Law of Things:
In its broad sense property law can also be described as patrimonial law the
law dealing with a person’s patrimony (all his/her assets).
Patrimonial law is divided into the law of things, the law of succession, the
law of obligations and intellectual property law.
Patrimonial law regulates all rights of which the objects are assets in a
person’s estate. In this broad sense everything that forms part of a person’s
estate can be described as ‘‘property’’.
Property therefore includes a variety of assets, such as things (for example,
land, a car, a computer and a mobile phone), personal rights (creditor’s
rights/claims) (for example, the right to one’s salary, the right to the
proceeds of an insurance policy or the right to claim the purchase price in
terms of a contract of sale) and immaterial property rights (for example,
copyright and patent rights).
The law of things as a subdivision of patrimonial law falls under private law.
The law of things deals with specific legal object, namely a thing.
Real Right and Entitlement:
a real right can be defined as a lawful real relationship between a legal
subject and a thing which confers direct control over the thing on the legal
subject, as well as the relationship between the legal subject and all other
legal subjects who must respect this relationship.
A legal subject who acquires a real right from a lawful real relationship is
usually entitled by the legal order to perform certain acts in connection with
the thing.
The capacities conferred on the legal subject by virtue of a right, in this case
a real right, are called entitlements.
, THE LAW OF THINGS:
Briefly mention the functions of the law of things:
1. It strives to harmonize or regulate various competing ownership rights,
especially between neighbouring owners.
2. It strives to harmonize or regulate an owner’s rights in regard to his/her thing
with the rights of other limited real right holders to the same thing
3. It controls the acquisition, protection and extinction of things and real rights
Name the sources of the current law of things in order of priority:
the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
statute law
case law
common law (Roman-Dutch law)/indigenous (customary) law
Real relationships:
A legal relationship is a relationship to which the law attaches consequences.
Where the object of a legal relationship between legal subjects is a thing, we
refer to a real relationship.
A real relationship is the particular legal relationship between one or more
legal subjects and a thing
There are usually two sides to a real relationship:
1. the subject-object relationship between the particular legal subject and the
particular thing involved in the relationship
2. the subject-subject relationship between the particular legal subject and all
other legal subjects
The most important real relationships are usually divided into three categories:
ownership
possession
holdership
