This week marks the culmination of our extended inquiry into the legal nature of money. We will not read cases; instead, the only reading material is Adrian Cartland’s new (draft) paper, included in the training materials. This paper consolidates the last few months of Tax Trainings into a unified thesis: that the Moss v Hancock test – identifying money as “that which passes freely from hand to hand throughout the community in final discharge of debts” – remains authoritative, but only for State-issued money. Where the State is not the issuer, the test becomes unstable. “Community” is a sociological concept, not a legal one, and without sovereign underpinning, courts lack a reliable standard for recognising alternative monies. The paper interrogates this doctrinal gap, drawing together legal decisions and global historical examples to propose a more robust legal framework for recognising money.
Discussion Focus
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The limits of the Moss test when applied to non-state money.
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Why “community acceptance” lacks legal precision.
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Historic failures of quasi-money (e.g. scrip, tobacco, hyperinflated currency).
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The need for sovereign recognition or legally enforceable convertibility.
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Implications for taxation, discharge of debts, and legal drafting.
This session brings together all prior discussions on monetary form, legal tender, and failed currencies, and sets the stage for a clearer, more doctrinally grounded understanding of money in legal and fiscal contexts.
Required reading materials will be emailed to attendees prior to the session.
Discussion led by Adrian Cartland.