Where possession alone is relinquished, ownership is retained by the abandoner, and property can be laid in him (even if his identity is not known) for the purposes of a prosecution for theft. As such, taking garbage that does not belong to you is theft. You do not abandoned ownership when leaving trash at the corner of your driveway for pickup and disposal by the government authority. See especially R v Rostron[2003] EWCA Crim 2206, [2003] All ER (D) 269, discussed in detail below. Other useful examples are provided by Williams v Phillips (1957) 41 Cr App Rep 5, Ellerman’s Wilson Line v Webster[1952] 1 Lloyds Rep 179, Hibbert v McKiernan[1948] 2 KB 142, and R v Edwards and Stacey (1877) Cox CC 384. In a famous article on abandonment, Professor Hudson criticised the authoritative works of property, commercial law and legal history for passing over in silence ‘the long standing opinion in criminal law that divesting abandonment is possible’: Hudson, AH ‘Is divesting abandonment possible at common law’ (1984) 100 LQR 110 Google Scholar at 113. Click here.
Where possession alone is relinquished, ownership is retained by the abandoner, and property can be laid in him (even if his identity is not known) for the purposes of a prosecution for theft. As such, taking garbage that does not belong to you is theft. You do not abandoned ownership when leaving trash at the corner of your driveway for pickup and disposal by the government authority. See especially R v Rostron[2003] EWCA Crim 2206, [2003] All ER (D) 269, discussed in detail below. Other useful examples are provided by Williams v Phillips (1957) 41 Cr App Rep 5, Ellerman’s Wilson Line v Webster[1952] 1 Lloyds Rep 179, Hibbert v McKiernan[1948] 2 KB 142, and R v Edwards and Stacey (1877) Cox CC 384. In a famous article on abandonment, Professor Hudson criticised the authoritative works of property, commercial law and legal history for passing over in silence ‘the long standing opinion in criminal law that divesting abandonment is possible’: Hudson, AH ‘Is divesting abandonment possible at common law’ (1984) 100 LQR 110 Google Scholar at 113. Click here.