[2] I do not think I am overlooking anything that was said in the Port Swettenham Rubber Co case [1913] AC 491; Innes 202 or Abdul Rahman's case [1917] AC 209; 1 FMSLR 290. I feel compelled, however, to observe that in my experience a great deal of the difficulty and confusion which sometimes attend actions relating to land in this country arise from the no doubt well-intentioned efforts of Counsel to force our local law into conformity with conceptions of the English law which really have very little relevance.

[3] To my mind, many of the difficulties which appear to arise in these cases would not arise if we were to bear in mind throughout the distinction between rights ad rem or personal rights and rights in rem or real rights. Where there is a valid binding contract for the sale of land, the purchaser, when he has performed his side of the contract, acquires a right ad rem which is also a right in personam. In other words, he acquires a right to the land as against the vendor personally but