Preface

After a perhaps too-long break of nearly eight years, it was something of a relief to get the fourth edition off my desk. The fourth edition has undergone significant change, not merely to reflect recent developments in the law, but to reflect how the topic of intangible property is developing at a much more fundamental level. As a result, there have been a number of strategic changes to the work. First, there has been a much clearer articulation, throughout the book, of the significance of intangible property’s lack of physicality. This, of course, is obvious, but the implications are much more clearly set out, particularly in the book’s approach to private international law (Chapter 3) and following and tracing (Chapters 23 to 27). Secondly, the chapter on champerty and maintenance (Chapter 14) is now joined by four additional chapters (Chapters 15 to 18) which describe the various forms of collective proceeding and class action recognized in England and Wales. These chapters, viewed as a whole, show the progressive hollowing out of the doctrines of champerty and maintenance.