103 Iowa L. Rev. 1915 (2018)

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Abstract

Wealth transfer doctrines have never before been compared on a large scale. Using a unique hand-coded data set on property doctrines that I compiled over five years, this Article describes the following doctrines in 153 jurisdictions: whether the jurisdiction recognizes any future interest; whether real estate registration is absolute (public faith principle); whether in sales of real estate registration is necessary, or create opposability to third parties; whether a real agreement is conceptually separate from the sale contract and whether an invalid sale contract will always cause the invalidity of the real agreement (non-causa principle); and whether delivery or certain intentions are required to transfer ownership of personal properties or the sale contract itself is sufficient. Further using clustering analysis, this Article categorizes the wealth transfer doctrines of the 153 jurisdictions into eight groups, finding that China, Russia, and Scotland are the outliers, and English, French, and German influences on many jurisdictions are obvious.