Flashcards: Property law

Ius in re, or jus in re, under civil law, more commonly referred to as a real right or right in rem, is a right in property, known as an interest under common law.

A gift, in the law of property, is the voluntary transfer of property from one person (the donor or grantor) to another (the donee or grantee) without full valuable consideration.

State ownership (also called public ownership and government ownership) refers to property interests that are vested in the state or a public body representing a community as opposed to an individual or private party.

An easement is a non-possessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it.

Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities.

A waqf, also spelled wakf (Arabic: وقف‎‎, pronounced [ˈwɑqf]; plural Arabic: أوقاف‎‎, awqāf; Turkish: vakıf, Urdu: وقف‎), or mortmain property, is, under the context of charity "sadaqah", an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law, typically donating a building or plot of land or even cash for Muslim religious or charitable purposes with no intention of reclaiming the assets.

An emphyteusis is a real right (right in rem), susceptible of assignment and of descent, charged on productive real estate, the right being coupled with the enjoyment of the property on condition of taking care of the estate and paying taxes, and sometimes the payment of a small rent.

A pledge is a bailment that conveys possessory title to property owned by a debtor (the pledgor) to a creditor (the pledgee) to secure repayment for some debt or obligation and to the mutual benefit of both parties.

A trust is a relationship whereby property is held by one party for the benefit of another.

A wall is a structure that defines an area, carries a load, or provides shelter or security.

A pre-emption right, or right of pre-emption, is a contractual right to acquire certain property newly coming into existence before it can be offered to any other person or entity.

The public trust doctrine is the principle that the sovereign holds in trust for public use some resources such as shoreline between the high and low tide lines, regardless of private property ownership.

Hypothec (/hʌɪˈpɒθɪk/ or /ˈhʌɪpɒθɪk/; 16th century, from Fr. hypothèque, from Lat. hypotheca, from Gk. ὐποθήκη: hypothēkē), sometimes tacit hypothec, is a term used in mixed legal systems (e.g. Scots law, South African law, Ukrainian law (Ukrainian: Іпотека)) to refer to an express or implied non-possessory real security over corporeal movable property.

A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee (user) to pay the lessor (owner) for use of an asset.

The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity.

A floating charge is a security interest over a fund of changing assets (e.g. stocks) of a company or other artificial person, which 'floats' or 'hovers' until the point at which it is converted into a fixed charge, at which point the charge attaches to specific assets of the business.

Courtesy tenure (or curtesy/courtesy of England) is the legal term denoting the life interest which a widower (i.e. former husband) may claim in the lands of his deceased wife, under certain conditions.

Quicquid plantatur solo, solo cedit (Latin, "whatever is affixed to the soil belongs to the soil") is a legal Latin principle related to fixtures which means that something that is or becomes affixed to the land becomes part of the land; therefore, title to the fixture is a part of the land and passes with title to the land.

Dower is a provision accorded by law, but traditionally by a husband or his family, to a wife for her support in the event that she should survive her husband (i.e., become a widow).

Mineral rights are property rights to exploit an area for the minerals it harbors.

In Civil law and Roman law, the legitime (legitima portio), also known as a forced share or legal right share, of a decedent's estate is that portion of the estate from which he cannot disinherit his children, or his parents, without sufficient legal cause.

A secured creditor takes a security interest to enforce its rights against collateral in case the debtor defaults on the obligation.

The common law rule against perpetuities forbids instruments (contracts, wills, and so forth) from tying up property for too long a time beyond the lives of people living at the time the instrument was written.

A fraudulent conveyance, or fraudulent transfer, is an attempt to avoid debt by transferring money to another person or company.

The fertile octogenarian and the unborn widow are two legal fictions from the law of real property (and trusts) that can be used either to invoke the rule against perpetuities to make an interest in property void or, alternatively and much more frequently, to demonstrate the seemingly bizarre results that can occur as a result of the rule.