Policy paper

Property (Digital Assets Etc.) Bill

Information relating to the Property (Digital Assets Etc.) Bill which was introduced to the House of Lords on 11 September 2024.

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

Property (Digital Assets Etc.) Bill

Details

The Bill is concerned with the law of personal property in England and Wales. It provides that something may be capable of attracting property rights even if does not fit into either of the 2 categories of personal property that have traditionally been recognised under the law of England and Wales. These categories are: things in possession (generally, tangible things) and things in action (personal property that can only be claimed or enforced through a court action). 

The Bill gives effect to recommendations of the Law Commission for England and Wales. The Commission recommended statutory confirmation that a thing will not be deprived of legal status as an object of personal property rights merely by reason of the fact that it is neither a thing in possession nor a thing in action. This recommendation responds to the development of new types of assets such as crypto-tokens which challenge the traditional categories.

Updates to this page

Published 12 September 2024
Last updated 6 November 2024 + show all updates
  1. Property (Digital Assets Etc.) Bill: factsheet published.

  2. First published.

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