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Real Property • Introduction
PROP#000
Legal Definition
Property is common, and there are many laws that govern it. Your clothes are property. Your phone is property. But only stuff we live on or in is Real Property. Note that whenever we talk about "property law" in this deck, we mean "real property law". The legal topic of Real Property introduces you to a broad array of seemingly antiquated and arbitrary rules and terminology that you will be forced to accept as-is in order to later answer multiple choice questions and essay prompts correctly. Your class may not spend much, if any, time discussing the history of property law — which is a shame, because I feel that it adds a lot of understanding and context. So let's talk about it a bit.
Cultures and societies have generally always had some sort of property law. At its core, property law is simply a way to define who may appropriately occupy some physical space for some period of time. Modern property law can be traced all the way back to 1066, when William the Bastard left Normandy with his army and successfully conquered England. Having won a substantial amount of land, William needed a way to manage, hold, and defend it. From this need, the start of English real property law began. Estates in land were granted to lords (landlords), who then divided and parceled out smaller areas of land to tenants. These lords and tenants owed duties to the Crown and, as such, the Crown needed a reliable way to know who possessed land and who was accountable for each parcel.
Thus, much of property law you will learn in school deals with all the ways to classify someone's ownership or possession of a piece of land, as well as their duty or obligations to others. If at any point you are feeling stressed out trying to memorize a new term: take a break, take a deep breath, and thank William the Bastard.
Cultures and societies have generally always had some sort of property law. At its core, property law is simply a way to define who may appropriately occupy some physical space for some period of time. Modern property law can be traced all the way back to 1066, when William the Bastard left Normandy with his army and successfully conquered England. Having won a substantial amount of land, William needed a way to manage, hold, and defend it. From this need, the start of English real property law began. Estates in land were granted to lords (landlords), who then divided and parceled out smaller areas of land to tenants. These lords and tenants owed duties to the Crown and, as such, the Crown needed a reliable way to know who possessed land and who was accountable for each parcel.
Thus, much of property law you will learn in school deals with all the ways to classify someone's ownership or possession of a piece of land, as well as their duty or obligations to others. If at any point you are feeling stressed out trying to memorize a new term: take a break, take a deep breath, and thank William the Bastard.
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