English Land law laid emphasis on possession rather than Ownership
The English Land Law laid emphasis on possession and not ownership. It will be apposite to define possession, possession is the physical control a person exercises in relation to land, the right to possession of land of land may arise by virtue of grant from the owner of the land possession refers therefore to the physical control of a thing, with an intention so to control it. In my view I feel before we can extensively discuss about this question, one has to first give a brief history of English land law. Then what is the history of English land law?
The English system of land can be traced back to the Norman conquest of 1066, after which William the second, in a land-grab of epic proportions, declared himself absolute owner of all the land of the country. Therefore all existing forms of land ownership were swept away .The conquest brought with it a sharp distinction between land and chattels. That is chattels are things that can be owned, land can’t be owned, except by the monarch. If private citizens can’t own land what is it that we really own when we think of ourselves as landowners ? It should be noted at this point that we own what is called ‘estate in land’. An estate in land is some package of rights over land and various responsibilities accompanying those rights. These rights by definition, fall short of absolute ownership, but can be quite extensive.
After the conquest, William as absolute owner of all land set about distributing vast swathes of it to his principal supporters. These people were tenant -in-chief of the king that is they held their grants of land directly from the king. The tenancy relationship gave the tenants’ rights over the land, but not ownership .These rights included the right to enjoy income from agricultural production of the land and were accompanied by certain obligations to the king. For example, the tenant may have been expected to raise soldiers to support the king’s military endeavours, or accept a general duty
The English system of land can be traced back to the Norman conquest of 1066, after which William the second, in a land-grab of epic proportions, declared himself absolute owner of all the land of the country. Therefore all existing forms of land ownership were swept away .The conquest brought with it a sharp distinction between land and chattels. That is chattels are things that can be owned, land can’t be owned, except by the monarch. If private citizens can’t own land what is it that we really own when we think of ourselves as landowners ? It should be noted at this point that we own what is called ‘estate in land’. An estate in land is some package of rights over land and various responsibilities accompanying those rights. These rights by definition, fall short of absolute ownership, but can be quite extensive.
After the conquest, William as absolute owner of all land set about distributing vast swathes of it to his principal supporters. These people were tenant -in-chief of the king that is they held their grants of land directly from the king. The tenancy relationship gave the tenants’ rights over the land, but not ownership .These rights included the right to enjoy income from agricultural production of the land and were accompanied by certain obligations to the king. For example, the tenant may have been expected to raise soldiers to support the king’s military endeavours, or accept a general duty