The project will review the current laws of easements and analogous rights to determine whether they currently meet community expectations and needs. The review will provide a report of the current law of easements and outline possible areas for reform, consider the current legislative requirements in Tasmania for the creation, variation and termination of easements, and consider the interaction of the legislation with the current common law requirements.

Specifically, the review will:

• Analyse and list the legislation that impacts on easements in Tasmania.
• Analyse and list the common law requirements, and indicate how these interact with the legislation.
• Consult with key stakeholders and identify where they see the law of easements as adequate or inadequate.
• Identify key problem areas (for example, but not necessarily limited to these):      
• The impact of easements on the rational use of land;
• The interaction between legislation and common law;
• The way in which easements can be varied, terminated or abandoned;
• The role of prescriptive easements in a largely registered land system;
• The extent to which novel easements can be created (such as a right to a view, solar and wind access easements);
• The extent to which common law rules of the constructions of easements meet current needs;
• Whether easements in gross should be permitted;
• Whether the current wording for the short form of easements in Schedule 8 of the Conveyancing Law and Property Act 1884 meets modern needs;

• Whether the law of easements could be amalgamated with the law of restrictive covenants and other land use planning devices into a single land use planning instrument.

• Consider the relationship of easements to other analogous land use planning devices (such as restrictive covenants and profits á prendre) and identify whether it would be possible to consolidate these devices into one statutory based land use obligation.
• Any related matters.

This topic for this project was suggested by a member of the public.

An issues paper will be released in 2008.

If you would like to receive a copy of the Issues paper, please contact the Institute.