Bank A offers all sorts of special investments. Some of these investments, including those
in the SJ Foundation, have special certificates. For each 100,000 euros, the investor will
receive a certificate granting the right to have one vote in appointing the director of the
foundation. Bank A keeps around 1,000 certificates for its clients.
Suppose that bank A is in financial turmoil and is declared bankrupt. The clients for
which Bank A was holding the certificates seek to vindicate, that is reclaim possession of,
the certificates. However, as there is no administrative document to show which certificate
specifically belongs to which client, they cannot do so; their ownership is lost.
Specificity is, finally, also important because property rights end if the things or
objects on which they rest cease to exist. This only makes sense if property rights
have specific objects.
Pressure on the Principle The principle of specificity is under pressure nowadays
because of the development of new objects of property law. The reason is that
immaterial “things,” such as money on bank accounts, claims, and virtual objects in
online computer games, become more and more important and valuable. As a
consequence, it is useful to allow property rights on them, but—as can easily be
understood—immaterial things are less easy to identify than material objects. As a
consequence, it becomes increasingly burdensome, or even impossible, to identify
exactly the object in which property rights are vested.
5.6.3 The Principle of Publicity
If property rights potentially affect everyone, it is important that everyone can know
who has which property right.
If you want to buy a house, it is essential to know whether there is a hypothec (or mortgage)
on the house. The holder of the hypothec can, under certain circumstances, sell off the
house to satisfy his claim from the proceeds. Because of thedroit de suite, this property
right can be invoked against anybody holding the house, and therefore also against new
owners. If this is the house you recently bought, and if the debts for which the house is sold
are not your own debts, it is rather painful.
Therefore, property rights should, in principle, be publicly knowable. The way in
which this demand for publicity is satisfied differs for real estate (land and what is
built upon it) and movables.
5.6.3.1 Land
In respect to land, publicity is realized through a land registry.
When Adam sells his land to Beatrice every legal system would require an authentic deed,
drawn up by a notary or other official, that contains the agreement of transfer between the
parties. Let us assume that in this case the deed is drawn up by the notary Clovis and sent in
for registration.Negative SystemsThere are generally two types of registration systems. On one
hand, there are registration systems that operate on the basis of a simple registration
ofdeeds, i.e. official documents created by a notary.
88 B. Akkermans