Real property law in the English and Welsh legal system had evolved from feudalism, and was an immensely complex system understood by only a small number of lawyers. In particular peculiarities meant that land owned by beneficiaries could be sold without the agreement of all the beneficiaries involved, something partially rectified by the Settled Land Act 1882 and the Land Transfer Act 1897. Despite these statutes reform in this area was still needed, and Lord Haldane presented reform bills to parliament in 1913, 1914 and 1915 with no real progress thanks to the opposition of the Law Society. In March 1917 a Reconstruction Subcommittee under Sir Leslie Scott was created to consider land policy after the First World War, and Schuster (who had devilled for Scott when working as a barrister in Liverpool) was appointed as a member. The subcommittee decided that the law should be changed to merge real and personal property law, and that outdated aspects of land law such as copyholds and gavelkind should be eliminated. When Birkenhead became Lord Chancellor in 1919 he inherited the problem of English property law, and immediately instructed Schuster to prepare the department for forcing a bill through Parliament on the matter.