Report No. 66
5.11. Relax ation of the restraint-Act of 1881.-
Whilst the restraint effectively kept the property out of the hands of the husband and his creditors, it had one obvious drawback. There might be a number of occasions on which it might be in the wife's interest to deal with property subject to a restraint, but nothing short of a private Act of Parliament could remove it. It was in order to overcome this difficulty that the Convincing Act, 1881 gave the court in England power to bind her interest in such property, provided that this was for her benefit1. But the court could render only a specific disposition, binding; it had no general power to remove the restraint altogether.
1. Section 39, Conveyancing Act, 1881 replaced by section 7, Conveyancing Act, 1911, replaced by the Law of Property Act 1925, section 169.