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

Oil portrait of Hugo de Groot, also known as Hugo Grotius, by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, showing him with a ruffled white collar and dark clothing.

Freiherr von Pufendorf

Friedrich Engels

Automatic gristmill patent

Related Questions

Oil portrait of Hugo de Groot, also known as Hugo Grotius, by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, showing him with a ruffled white collar and dark clothing. — Hugo Grotius Portrait of Hugo de Groot (Hugo Grotius), oil on panel by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, 1631; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Property law

Also known as: property rights

Written by

Charles DonahueAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 4, 2026 •History

Property law, principles, policies, and rules by which disputes over property are to be resolved and by which property transactions may be structured. What distinguishes property law from other kinds of law is that property law deals with the relationships between and among members of a society with respect to “things.” The things may be tangible, such as land or a factory or a diamond ring, or they may be intangible, such as stocks and...

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