Property law

Property law is the area of law that governs legal rights, including ownership and tenure, in property. Legal systems generally recognise two major kinds of property: property that relates to land, often called real property; and property that does not, which may include personal property. Depending on jurisdiction, personal property either is synonymous with tangible property, which may include money, or can be further divided into tangible and intangible property, which includes intellectual property.

Property law relates to the acquisition, divestment, and enforcement of proprietary rights. As these rights usually involve relationships between private individuals, property law is largely an area of private law, although public law aspects of property law include such issues as compulsory land acquisition, wealth redistribution, environmental effects, antitrust or economic competition, indigenous rights, and the human rights to property and housing.

The property law of common law jurisdictions originate in medieval English law, which developed under two separate systems of court, equity and common law, each with its set of proprietary rules. Civil law jurisdictions, on the other hand, trace their proprietary origins to the Roman law, although the two legal traditions interact with and influence one another. The most significant doctrinal influence across the two systems is the reception of the trust into civilian jurisdictions