real property: see property.

property, rights to the enjoyment of things of economic value, whether the enjoyment is exclusive or shared, present or prospective. The rightful possession of such rights is called ownership. Ownership necessarily is supported by correlative rights to exclude others from enjoyment. By extension of usage, the things in which one has property rights are called one's property; thus the person who holds title to a house, even though there is a mortgage outstanding, calls it his or her "property."

Nature of Modern Property

Modern Anglo-American property law provides at least potentially for the ownership of nearly all things that have or may have value. The terminology and much of the content of modern property law stem from its origins in feudalism. The fundamental division is into realty (or real estate or real property) and personalty (or personal property). (For rules affecting marital property, see husband and wife; for certain special types of property, see copyright and patent.)

Realty

Realty is chiefly land and improvements built thereon. Sometimes it is comprehensively, but loosely, described as lands, tenements (holdings by another's authority), and hereditaments (that which is capable of being inherited). Formerly its chief characteristics in a legal sense were that it went by descent to the heir of the owner (who had no control over its disposition) and that ownership might be recovered from any other party by a lawsuit (a so-called real action). Also possessing such characteristics, and hence classified as real property, were titles of honor, heirlooms, and advowsons, i.e., rights to sell ecclesiastical benefices. The manner in which realty is owned is called an estate; specifically, ownership is a fee of some sort, for example, an estate in fee simple (see tenure).

Personalty

Personal property consists chiefly of movables, that is, portable objects. Typically (but by no means invariably) the owner can by will, gift, or sale determine its distribution (note the contrast with the term descent), and if it has been wrongly taken, a lawsuit (a so-called personal action) will recover damages but will not restore the object. Certain types of interests in land are also classified as personalty; examples are leases for a period of years, mortgages, and liens.

Limits on Ownership

The need for unobstructed intercourse between nations prohibits the assertion of ownership of the high seas, and special rules apply to territorial waters (see waters, territorial) and to domestic navigable water. Air space beyond that which can be used by airplanes is often considered not subject to ownership. In a sense, all land presently or ultimately belongs to the state, for whatever is not actually owned by the public authority may be transferred to it by escheat (when there is no heir to the owner) or in condemnation proceedings under the power of eminent domain. In fact, much or most land in capitalist societies is in private hands, although public lands may be extensive and ownership of subsoil mineral wealth or of buried objects (see treasure-trove) may in some instances be public. (See also public ownership.)

Development of Property Law

Protection and content are given to the ownership of property by custom or law. The type of property law in a society may be taken as an index of its social and economic system. For example, a primitive pastoral tribe that must be closely united to resist its enemies may hold pasture lands in common or rotate ownership, thereby avoiding disruptive quarrels. By contrast, in societies that enjoy an economic surplus and relative security, the institution of private property may be highly developed, with marked division of ownership and a competitive struggle for control. On the other hand, private property may be all but eliminated in certain societies, as in those envisioned by Karl Marx.

In Europe, the distinction between realty and personalty served the purposes of early feudal society. The ownership and disposition of land, the basis of most wealth and the keystone of the social structure, were controlled to protect society, while the ownership of personalty, being of minor importance, was almost unfettered.

As the economic system was altered during the late Middle Ages, however, personalty lost its subordinate position and grew to be the economic mainstay of the rising middle class of merchants and manufacturers. Personalty could be bought and sold in relative freedom without the hindrances that beset the disposal of land. By taking advantage of its economic freedom, the middle class was able to replace the landed aristocracy as society's dominant class. Concurrently, it sought to relieve real property of its medieval fetters in order to use it, along with personalty, as revenue-producing capital.

Gradually the law of realty tended in all important respects to be assimilated to that of personalty. In time land could be sold or distributed by will with almost perfect freedom; in effect it joined the list of other commodities. Differences of detail in the law of realty and personalty persist, especially in the transfer of realty, however, which involves great formality.

personal property: see property.

lost property: see finder.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters at Geneva. WIPO became an agency in 1974, but its roots go back to 1883 when the need for international protection of intellectual property prompted the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and to 1886 with the Bern Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Both conventions created international bureaus, which merged (1893) to become the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI). In 1960, BIRPI moved from Bern to Geneva and a decade later it became WIPO. Today's organization administers intellectual property matters recognized by United Nations member states, managing international treaties that deal with some aspect of intellectual property protection. WIPO also assists governments, organizations, and the private sector in monitoring developments in the field. It not only helps to protect such traditional works of the mind as patented inventions, books, music, works of art, films, industrial designs, and trademarks, but is increasingly involved in the protection of information technology and World Wide Web-related matters. WIPO has 184 member nations.

Basic types of property in English common law, roughly corresponding to the division between immovables and movables in civil law. Real property consists of land, buildings, crops, and other resources, improvements, or fixtures still attached to the land. Personal property is essentially all property other than real property, including goods, animals, money, and vehicles.

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Levy imposed on real estate (land and buildings) and in some jurisdictions on personal property such as automobiles, jewelry, and furniture. Some countries also levy property taxes on farm equipment, business equipment, and inventories as well as intangibles such as stocks and bonds. Property taxes are usually levied by local or state governments rather than national governments, and they are a major source of tax revenue. Property taxes existed in the ancient world first as land taxes and later as taxes on farmhouses, livestock, and so on. The administration of a property tax involves identifying the property to be taxed, assessing its value, determining the appropriate tax rate, and collecting the requisite sum of money. Though sometimes burdensome to the poor, property taxes generally tend to redistribute the benefits of wealth from higher to lower income groups, since they often pay for schools and other services used by low-income groups. Seealso capital-gains tax; consumption tax; income tax; progressive tax; regressive tax.

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In law, something that is owned or possessed. Concepts of property vary widely among cultures. In the West, property is generally regarded as either tangible (e.g., land or goods) or intangible (e.g., stocks and bonds or a patent). Individual ownership of property is emphasized in Western societies, whereas in many non-Western societies property ownership is deemphasized or conceived on a more strictly communal basis. The use of property is extensively regulated throughout the West. Landowners injured by adjoining land uses may sue in nuisance in Anglo-American countries; similar actions exist in civil-law countries. Throughout the West, landowners may agree to allow others to use their land in ways that would otherwise be actionable, and such agreements may be made to bind those to whom the land is conveyed. Anglo-American law tends to divide these grants of use rights into categories that reflect their common-law origins: easements (such as rights of way), profits (such as the right to take minerals or timber), real covenants (such as a promise to pay a homeowners' association fee), and equitable servitudes (such as a promise to use the property for residential purposes only). The civil law has fewer categories, the general category “servitudes” tending to cover for them all, and is a bit more restrictive. A common means of acquiring property is by transfer from the previous owner or owners. Such transfers include sales, donations, and inheritance. Seealso adverse possession; community property; intellectual property; prescription; real and personal property.

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Property held jointly by a husband and wife. In states having a community property system, property acquired by either spouse during the marriage may be deemed to belong to each spouse as an undivided one-half interest. Some property (e.g., gifts to one spouse) may be classified as separate, but in lawsuits over the classification of property the presumption is in favour of the community category. Some jurisdictions extend community property laws to same-sex unions.

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