The law of waste and the law of dilapidations: A comparative history

This article compares the origins and later development of two related remedies – one from the canon law, the other from the English common law. Neither has attracted the sustained attention of legal historians, but both played a part in the growth of English law. Although the evidence is insufficient to show that the relationship between the two was that of a ‘legal transplant’, it does produce both significant parallels and differences between them. The comparison also opens a window on the attitudes and habits characteristic of the lawyers on both sides of the divide between the two legal systems.