What Are Property Rights?

In the legal sense of the term, the property is any item that is “placed” or “conveyanced” for some legal purpose. In more common terms, property is any movable personal property of the person, group, company, etc., having a legal relation to the person or group and the legal title to it. It may be personal or public. Real property, on the other hand, includes real estate, improvements on real estate (such as buildings and bridges), and any movable asset owned by a government or a State, including public buildings, government offices, schools, hospitals, and private housing. In layman’s terms, real property can also be anything under the sun that’s not stuff, but which has a value because of its “examenation.”

Property in the legal sense is what belongs either to or with whatever, whether as a portion of something or as an aspect of that thing. The two concepts are related, but the ownership is different. Placing something on the market is buying the right to ownership, while conveyancing is buying the right to possession. Here’s a simple example: If I were looking to buy a piece of private property, a corgi dog, in this case, the proprietor of that property is my creditor, and he can sue me for breach of contract if I don’t pay up.

Property systems differ, even when the issues involve real property rights. In a nation of free enterprise, property rights may well be regarded as private property rights. That is, they are rights that exist individually but are subordinate to and dependent upon government-recognized property systems. For example, a farmer has no property rights within the borders of his neighbor’s property unless those property boundaries are recognized as part of the farmer’s proprietary rights system. He may sell his produce on the free market, but unless he has a legally established system of irrigation, roads, horticultural sheds, etc., the produce cannot be exchanged.

Individual property rights may also exist in respect of what is called “common property”. The boundaries defined by these property systems may be inclusive or non-inclusive, i.e., they may include the entirety of a geographically contiguous lot of land, or they may include only a portion of it. One example of a nation with widespread common property ownership rights is Canada. In that regard, the phrase “ottouillard law” conjures up the image of hinterland (rooted by the Ojibway Indians) whose lands have been incorporated within the province of Ontario. The same principle applies to portions of United States land west of the Mississippi river, which have been incorporated within the states of Texas and Oklahoma.

Beyond the United States, property ownership is often based upon what is called “common law”. This means that the laws governing personal property remain more or less consistent throughout the states where people live. Therefore, a person owning a house in New York City will not be denied the right to enjoy a vacation home on the island of Manhattan because he does not own a house in Florida. This is not the case if, for some reason, one owns immovable property. Immovable property includes items like furniture and automobiles.

Common property rights are particularly important in today’s global society. As an example, when oil companies prospect for and produce petroleum near the coasts of coastal countries like Nigeria and Malaysia, the rights to such property may be tied to the commercial interest of the oil company. Owners of immovable property are not entitled to the same protection under the international labor law as owners of personal property. Labor law recognizes and respects the right of indigenous peoples to live and work on their own lands, as well as to seek compensation for harms they may have sustained. The fundamental legal concept of property rights, including the right of acquisition, transfer and cultivation of property, and the nature of the relationship between master and slave, remains fundamentally valid in our current legal system and in the practices of many countries around the world.