1st CPL Distinguished Public Lecture:
Intangible Assets and the Renaissance of Personal Property Law
Date & Time: 2 March 2026 (Monday), 6:00 – 7:00 PM Hong Kong Time
Venue: Academic Conference Room, 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
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Personal property law, for long quiescent and neglected, has come alive in the last quarter century. In 2025, the UK passed a statute entitled the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025. This was the outcome of extensive work conducted by the Law Commission. The only provision of any substance in the abbreviated Act tells us in a few lines that a thing (including one that is digital or electronic in nature) is not prevented from being the object of personal property rights merely because it is neither a thing in possession nor a thing in action. This short provision prompts the question what is a property right and how far does it extend to things that are not capable of physical possession. Personal property law has traditionally defined ownership in terms of possession. A further question stems from the separation of both things in possession and things in action from an unnamed third type of thing (neither of the above). If such a tripartite division of personal property rights is possible, the implications are considerable and other questions are posed. What exactly is a thing in action and what are the limits of this category? What is the content of this third thing and how far does it go? Are rights in this third thing legal or equitable, and how does this affect title transfer? Does interference with this third thing attract the tort of conversion? By what other means might rights in this third thing be protected in law, and so on?
Michael Bridge KC (Hon), FBA, is an Emeritus Professor at both the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore and the London School of Economics, and Senior Research Fellow, Harris Manchester College, Oxford University. He was formerly Geoffrey Bartholomew Professor at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore and formerly Cassel Professor of Commercial Law at the London School of Economics.
Moderator: Kelvin Low, Professor, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law