property law

Introduction
Definition and basic themes
- The problem of definition
- Etymology
- The Western tendency to agglomerate
Property law and the Western concept of private property
- The origins of the Western idea of property
  - Rome
  - England
  - The European continent
  - Explaining the origins
- Property law and theory in the early modern period
  - The classical theories of property
  - Marxism, liberalism, and the law
  - Societal influences
Objects, subjects, and types of possessory interests in property
- Objects: What can be the object of property?
  - Classification of “things”
    - Water
    - Other natural resources
    - The human body
  - Possession of tangible things
  - Possession of intangible things
  - Government-granted rights as property
  - Movable and immovable property
- Subjects: who can be an owner?
  - Single individuals
  - Groups
    - Concurrent individual owners
    - Marital owners
    - Corporate owners
    - Community or state owners
- Unitary and nonunitary concepts of ownership
- Divisions of ownership
  - Spatial divisions
  - Temporal divisions
    - Life estate and remainder
    - Contingent interests
    - Civil law
    - Landlord and tenant
- Other forms of divided ownership: trusts, mortgages, and security interests
  - Trusts
  - Security interests in property
- Protection of property interests
  - Public law protections of property
    - Criminal
    - Regulatory
  - Private law protections of property
    - Anglo-American law
    - Civil law
Use of property interests
- Nuisance law and continental parallels
- Private land-use control: servitudes
  - Easements and profits
  - Real covenants
  - Equitable servitudes
  - Civil law
- Public regulation of land use
  - Public nuisance
  - Direct regulation
    - Zoning and planning
    - Environmental and historical controls
  - Eminent domain
  - Constitutional limitations on government regulation of property
Acquisition and transfer of property interests
- Acquisition by adverse possession, prescription, and expropriation
- Subsequent acquisition
  - Contract and conveyance
  - Registration and recordation
  - Sales
    - Movables
    - Sale of immovables
  - Gifts
    - Inter vivos
    - Wills
  - Protection of the family against intentional disinheritance
Aspects of property law in communist and postcommunist countries
- Russia
  - The problem of land ownership
  - Mortgages and pledges
  - Inheritance law
  - Trusts
  - Private land-use servitudes
- Romania
  - The legal land regime in general
  - Land-transfer transactions
  - Landlord-tenant law
- China
  - General background
  - Gifts
  - Succession at death
  - Sales of land and landed assets

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

property law: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	property rights

Photos

See All Images →

Topics

terra nullius intellectual-property law perpetuity license copyright copyleft property law procedural law inheritance constitutional law international law tort canon law government economic policy social service administrative law agency

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

Thomas Jefferson

president of United States

Ellen Spencer Mussey

American lawyer, educator and reformer

Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st earl of Birkenhead

British statesman

Ronald Coase

British-American economist

Oliver Hart

British-born American economist

Sir Thomas Littleton

British jurist

property law: Facts & Related Content

Facts

Photos

Related Topics and References

Key People