14. Land Law and Human Rights

This chapter examines the relationship between land law and human rights. From a distinctly land law perspective, the human rights discourse has given rise to much debate, which continues to fuel much academic commentary including recent examination of the availability of horizontal effect in McDonald v McDonald in the Supreme Court and in the European Court of Human Rights. The chapter focuses chiefly on the two most pertinent provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) for land law; namely Art. 1 of the First Protocol and Art. 8 and reflects on the, at times, difficult relationship between land law and human rights.

10. Easements and Profits

This chapter considers two rights in land that fall short of rights of possession: easements and profits. These lesser, non-possessory rights are a vital way in which even more of the value in land can be unlocked. An easement is a right of one landowner to enjoy limited use of another’s, neighbouring land. A profit involves a right to take something from another’s land e.g. fish or wood. It involves more than a mere limited right over another’s land but rather entails a right to appropriate some part of the natural product of that land.

9. Leases

This chapter examines the lease. Leases embrace a multiplicity of contexts from the residential to the commercial to the agricultural. This chapter considers the essential nature and ingredients of a lease; focusing on the central distinguishing of leases: exclusive possession. The chapter explores the importance and place of the lease in modern land law; the different types of leases that exists as well as how leases are created and can be brought to an end.

8. Proprietary Estoppel

The chapter explores the doctrine of proprietary estoppel—a means by which a person may acquire a proprietary interest in another’s land. If made out, a claim to proprietary estoppel allows for the informal creation and acquisition of rights in land. Rather than just being raised as defence against legal claims (as is the case for example in promissory estoppel), it is this that sets proprietary estoppel apart and represents its major point of distinction from other estoppels. This chapter considers the requirements for establishing an estoppel claim and the effect of an estoppel on third parties. You come to the law of proprietary estoppel at a time when it is has hit something of a fertile patch. With a bounty of case law, new decisions seemingly handed down almost monthly, proprietary estoppel is having its moment in the sun and remains one of the liveliest and most productive areas of land law today.

6. Interests in the Family Home

For many people, whether or not they enjoy an interest in the family home is fundamental to their sense of security, stability, and even their sense of self. However, a person may find themselves in a position where they are neither the registered legal owner of property nor do they enjoy an equitable interest under an express trust of land. This chapter examines how a person may acquire an interest in the family home through operation of the law of implied trusts: constructive and resulting trusts. It focuses on non-married, non-civilly partnered, cohabiting couples, or family members otherwise coming together to purchase property as a home. For these people, no legislation exists that gives courts jurisdiction to declare and adjust property interests. In this situation, the courts turn to the law of trusts to determine rights in the home, as this chapter explores.

3. Unregistered Land

This chapter focuses on unregistered land. Unregistered land continues to play a residual (if diminishing) role in contemporary land law. Although its influence is dwindling, there will remain a core clutch of land for which, for the foreseeable future, there will be no trigger for compulsory land registration and it will therefore remain unregistered. An appreciation of the principles of unregistered land gives students better insight into and a more informed angle on the principles of registered land and their effectiveness. Almost 100 years after the 1925 raft of legislation, much of which was designed to facilitate land registration, unregistered land principles therefore retain a significance. The chapter considers how dealings with unregistered land known as ‘title deeds conveyancing’ operate.

1. Introduction to Land Law

This chapter provides an introduction to land law and the subject’s foundational principles. Land law is the law of real property. It is ‘that part of the general law which governs the allocation of rights and responsibilities in relation to “real” or “immoveable” property’. Land law is about rights in things; in other words, rights in the land rather than rights which are merely personal to the people who created them. More specifically, land law creates a framework in which a variety of relationships between people and land can operate. Land law is concerned with the nature, creation, and protection of rights in land and, also the content of those rights.

7. Licences

This chapter discusses the nature, status, and characteristics of licences; the different types of licences that exist; what makes them distinct from other interests in land law and how they can be brought to an end. Licences in land arise when the owner of land grants to another person permission to use that land for a given purpose. A licence is therefore a permission to enter or do something on another’s land. The person granting the licence is the ‘licensor’ while the party to whom the licence is granted the ‘licensee’.

11. Freehold Covenants

This chapter considers covenants that exist in relation to freehold land—also known as ‘freehold covenants’. As the name suggests, these are promises made between freehold owners of land. The chapter explores the nature of freehold covenants; how such covenants are created and enforced between the orginal parties and successive owners of the land. Finally, this chapter discusses how freehold covenants can be discharged and modified and reform of the law in this area.

4. Adverse Possession

This chapter explores the law of adverse possession which exists as an exception to position that interests in land can only be created when formality requirements are met. A claim to adverse possession is a claim brought by a trespasser or squatter who has been in possession of another’s land for a long period of time. If successful, the trespasser or squatter may become the legal owner of that land. The chapter discusses the justifications for adverse possession; the requirements that must be satisfied to establish a claim to adverse possession and the effect of adverse possession on the original landowner.