NCJ Number
139322
Date Published
1992
Length
82 pages
Annotation
This paper analyzes and proposes changes in Australian law in situations involving competing claims to personal property, where one or more of the claims rests on a security interest related to a debt.
Abstract
The Victorian Law Reform Commission and the Queensland Law Reform Commission developed the paper after being asked by their attorneys-general to examine the law relating to securities over personal property with a view to introducing uniform Australian legislation on the subject. Mortgages and charges are the main forms of nonpossessory consensual security. Disputes over personal property can arise in relation to stolen goods, fraudulent conversion, and wrongful creation of a subsequent security interest. The proposed reform would involve registration and other provisions along the lines of Article 9 of the U.S. Uniform Commercial Code. Although changing from the current situation in Australia will involve complications, these will be temporary and will ultimately simplify the law and eliminate the inefficiencies of the current system.