To conclude this brief discussion, it is submitted that the difference between German and Greek law and the other jurisdictions under consideration cannot satisfactorily be explained through differences as to the general rules on the transfer of ownership or statutory rules relating to the possessory pledge. The reason rather seems to lie in the development of this area of the law around the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century.123 At this time the expanding European economies faced an enormous increase in the demand for credit and security which could not be satisfied only through the use of the possessory pledge or charges over immovable property. In a number of jurisdictions, e.g. in France, Belgium and Italy, the legislature intervened and created specific security rights under which the need for delivery was replaced by a registration requirement. Nothing of this sort happened in Germany where the courts and ultimately the legislature sanctioned what the practice had created for itself.

(ii) Security rights based on the idea of a pledge without dispossession

There are three main criteria according to which one may analyse the various non-possessory security rights that are mentioned in the reports:

(1) the question of whether the right attaches only to specified movables or may attach to a corpus of movables where the individual ingredients may change (fixed and enterprise charges); (2) the question of whether a specific security right may apply to all kinds of movable property and to all kinds of claims or whether it is limited to specific categories such as registrable movables (cars, vessels, aircraft) or to specific kinds of claims, such as the claim arising out of a sale; and (3) the question of how the lack of actual delivery is addressed.

In respect of the first question, the f loating charge (enterprise charge) is a child of English common law and has also taken root in Ireland and Scotland. It has likewise taken hold in Sweden and Finland and is about to be transplanted into Greek law. All other jurisdictions know only what may be termed a fixed charge, meaning a security right that attaches to specified property. This distinction will be considered in detail in case 11 which, dealing with security rights in floating stock, is more in point.

As to the second question, Spanish, Dutch, English and Irish law recognise types of registrable pledges or fixed charges that apply to all categories of movables. The majority of jurisdictions, on the other

123 See in more detail Kieninger, Mobiliarsicherheiten im Europäischen Binnenmarkt 24 ff.