Chapter 6 - Property Law Flashcards
Property rights
Has effect against third parties by it’s nature. (If I’m the owner of the house everyone has to respect that.)
Personal rights
Are generally only binding between two or more specific parties. (entering contracts.)
Continental Civil law
- Limited number of types of interests in property
- Recognizes absolute ownership distinct from possession
- Owner has title to possession; the mere possessor has no title to ownership
Common law
- Allows parties considerably more freedom in types of interests they can create
- No clear distinction between ownership and possession
- Ownership to title to land is based on the fact of the best right to possession
Main legal sources of property law
● Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
● Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights
● Constitution
● Civil code / special statutes
Types of property rights in Civil law
- Use and habitation (The rights of use and habitation are strictly personal and cannot be transferred or leased to
another person.)
Ownership
Involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by
different parties. It is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property.
- Private
- State ownership
- Fractional ownership
- Common ownership
Private
assets owned by a private individual or org.
State ownership
also called government or public ownership. Assets owned by the state.
Fractional ownership
owning things together. Ex. children become fractional owners of the house of the
deceased parents. You can step out of it.
Common ownership
ex. apartment buildings. Your private apartment is your own, but the other rooms
aren’t yours. The elevator, corridors, garage etc. are your common parts. You can’t
step out of it.
Usufruct
a limited property right found in civil law and mixed jurisdictions that unites the two
property interests of usus and fructus.
Usus or user
the right to use or enjoy a thing possessed, directly and without
altering it.
Fructus or fruit
the right to derive profit from a thing possessed. Ex. by selling
crops, leasing immovables or annexed movables, taxing for entry, etc.
bare ownership
which is ownership of a piece of property without the
right to use and derive profit from that property.
Full ownership
is divided in two parts, bare ownership and usufruct. Bare ownership
leaves you with little, and selling it is very difficult unless you can convince the holder of
the usufruct to sell it at the same moment. As long as the holder of the usufruct is living,
the new bare owner will have to respect them. F.e. bare owner can’t claim interest or
dividends. The older the person, the higher the price of the bare ownership. Once they die, you
become full owner.
Right of use
does not include a right to take the fruits the object produces, except for
those fruits that the right-holder and his family need.
Right of habitation
is a specific right for a person to live in a house, to use a house,
or to use a part of a house with their family
