The Doctrine of Tenure

Question 1

The English doctrine of tenure originated from what?

Answer 1

Feudalism.

Question 2

Feudalism was a response to what?

Answer 2

The barbarian anarchy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD.

Question 3

Who transformed England into a feudal society after his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066?

Answer 3

William the Conqueror / William I

Question 4

Feudalism meant that all land in England was held in what ways by the king?

Answer 4

Either immediately or mediately held by the king.

Question 5

What term is used for tenants who held their land directly from the king?

Answer 5

Tenants in chief

Question 6

What were tenants who occupied the land itself called?

Answer 6

Tenants in demesne

Question 7

What is the term for tenants who neither held land directly from the King nor occupied the land but were in the middle rungs of tenure?

Answer 7

Mesne lords

Question 8

What is the interest of a tenant in the land called?

Answer 8

Feud or fee.

Question 9

How does Blackstone define “feodum or fee”?

Answer 9

Blackstone defines it as “that which is held of some superior, on condition of rendering him service.”

Question 10

What were the two main categories of feudal tenures?

Answer 10

Free and unfree tenures.

Question 11

What is a key distinction between free and unfree tenures?

Answer 11

Unfree tenants (villein tenants) lacked certainty about the type of services they were obligated to provide to their lord, whereas free tenants had some degree of certainty.

Question 12

What is an example of a service that a free tenant might be obligated to provide to the lord?

Answer 12

A free tenant might be bound to give, for instance, twelve dozen eggs at the end of the year.

Question 12

How did the services of an unfree tenant differ from those of a free tenant?

Answer 12

Unfree tenants might be bound to perform labor, such as 40 days of work in the springtime, without a specific itemized obligation like free tenants.

Question 13

What legal recourse did unfree tenants have if they were ejected by their lord?

Answer 13

No recourse to legal action.

Question 14

If ejected from the land by their lord, did free tenants have recourse to legal action?

Answer 14

Yes, free tenants had recourse to legal action through the king’s courts.

Question 15

What eventually replaced labor as a form of obligation in feudal tenures?

Answer 15

Monetary payments.

Question 16

In the 1500s, tenure in villeinage (unfree tenure) was eventually replaced by what?

Answer 16

Copyhold, which was itself abolished in England in 1925.

Question 17

Has unfree tenure or copyhold ever existed in New Zealand?

Answer 17

No, neither of these tenures have ever existed in New Zealand.

Question 18

What were the two categories of free tenure?

Answer 18

Lay and spiritual.

Question 19

What were the two subcategories of lay tenure?

Answer 19

Military and non-military.

Question 20

What were the two types of military tenures?

Answer 20

Grand serjeanty and knight’s service.

Question 21

What were the two types of non-military tenures?

Answer 21

Petty serjeanty and socage.

Question 22

What were the two subcategories of spiritual tenures?

Answer 22

Free alms (frank almoign) and divine service.

Question 23

What is the difference between free alms and divine service?

Answer 23

Free alms were an indefinite and non-specific spiritual service (e.g. praying for the soul of the grantor), whereas divine service was a definite and specific spiritual service (e.g. daily Mass).

Question 24

What were the incidents of tenure that came with military tenure?

Answer 24

Aids, wardship and marriage, relief and primer seisin, and escheat.

Question 25

Eventually, all non-military and non-spiritual forms of tenure was absorbed under what term?

Answer 25

Socage (the peasant’s tenure).

Question 26

Statute Quia Emptores 1290 abolished what feudal process?

Answer 26

Subinfeudation (the granting of land from a superior tenant to an inferior tenant).

Question 27

What was the effect of Statute Quia Emptores 1290?

Answer 27

The slimming down of the feudal system by reducing the number of mesne lords.

Question 28

What was the effect of the Tenures Abolition Act 1660?

Answer 28

All tenure (except for free alms and copyhold) was converted into “free and common socage” and all incidents of tenure except for escheat were abolished.

Question 29

Freehold tenure is also known as what?

Answer 29

Free and common socage or an estate in fee simple.

Question 30

Section 57(1) of the Property Law Act 2007 did what?

Answer 30

It abolished the incidents of tenure for freehold tenure.

Question 31

Per R v Symonds (1847), the Crown has what kind of title to land in New Zealand?

Answer 31

Radical or underlying title.

Question 32

Radical or underlying title does not apply to what type of title?

Answer 32

Indigenous or native title (Māori customary land).

Question 33

All land in New Zealand granted by the Crown to a subject is held by?

Answer 33

Held by the Crown.

Question 34

All Crown-granted land is what type of tenure?

Answer 34

Freehold tenure.

Question 35

Article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi guarantees what?

Answer 35

The “full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties” to the “Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand and to the respective families and individuals thereof.”

Question 36

In which case did Cooke P state that the principles of the Treaty must be applied instead of the literal words?

Answer 36

New Zealand Māori Council v Attorney-General [1987].

Question 37

Under Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 / Māori Land Act 1993, what are the categories of land in New Zealand?

Answer 37

Māori customary land, Māori freehold land, General land owned by Māori, General land, Crown land, or Crown land reserved for Māori.

Question 38

If nobody can demonstrate title to a parcel of land, the Crown becomes what?

Answer 38

The Crown becomes proprietor of the land.

Question 39

Crown land includes what?

Answer 39

National Parks and reserves, land held by persons under Crown lease or licence, land being developed for subdivision or settlement, and unoccupied lands

Question 40

The right of the Crown to appropriate private land for public purposes is called what?

Answer 40

Eminent domain, compulsory acquisition, or taking under the Public Works Act 1981.