This course will identify and deal with various aspects of personalty, our daily interaction with it, and its place in modern, commercial law. There are various ways of categorizing the personal property asset: these include as chattels real and personal, as chose in action and chose in possession, as tangibles and intangibles, and as future and present property. There are principles, common to all forms of personalty, which are used to identify the nature of the asset, the manner of the creation of interests, and the use of the asset as collateral for security or as quasi-security. The course will analyse how these traditional principles have been adapted to modern commercial law; how they can be used in the "invention" of novel interests and transactions; and how they can be adjusted to suit the variety of personal property assets. Topics will include: the principles common to both personalty and realty: the use of a chose in action as a commercial asset; the forms of personalty such as intellectual property rights, derivatives, shares, vehicles and equipment; the ability to use the physical state of chose in possession for sound security; and the recognition of the need for a valid,underlying contract when using an asset for commerce.