Things you didn't know you didn't know

I did three units of property law* on my law degree (LLB Hons with First Class), and either they didn't tell us this or I wasn't paying attention. I stumbled across a lengthy and fairly technical article, the upshot of which appears to be:

In England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the land is held from the sovereign in right of her Crown. As we have seen from the operation of bona vacantia, this particular aspect of land law does not apply to Cornwall. This is because the whole of Cornwall is legally the soil and territorial possession of the Duke of Cornwall in right of the Duchy of Cornwall and people hold their land not from the Queen as sovereign, but from the Duke as sovereign. Therefore, and in accordance with the terms of the 1st Duchy Charter, people in Cornwall hold their land not from the UK Government, but from a legally extant but now denied and hidden Duchy Government.

Known today as the Prince’s Council, it is an institution of governance that, whilst reaping the financial benefits and other rewards of this constitutional settlement, abdicates its reciprocal duties and responsibilities towards the territory and people from which it derives its powers, rights and status...**

I have explained in my books, on the ‘Status of Duchy’ entry on this weblog and also on the Duchy of Cornwall.eu website, that although laws passed by the Westminster Parliament today always extend to England and Wales, they do not extend to the Duchy of Cornwall unless the text expressly states that they do, and then only with the prior express approval of the Duke in his capacity as the de jure sovereign of Cornwall. As with other sovereigns, when considering new laws the Duke acts on advice from his officers of state sitting as the Princes Council.

The author may be exaggerating, but it stacks up as far as I can see.

* They refer to land law rather disingenuously as 'property law' - the other forms of property, such as employment [income], goods, copyrights are all dealt with separately as 'employment law', 'sale of goods', 'copyright law' etc.

** In other words, Cornwall has Land Value Tax (often referred to as 'ground rents'), it's just that it's collected privately by Prince Charles and his mates. IMHO, it would be far better to collect it publicly and use the proceeds to cut other taxes, repay the national debt or dish out as a Citizen's Income.