Let It Be

1.Introduction

1.1The nature of ownership

The origin of the notion of ownership is that it emerged, with the expansion of general trade, from use rights. Consequently, ownership especially for land has been and remains contentious. The origin of ownership concept is essentially Roman Dutch Law with some influence from the absolutist theories of the pandectist movement of the latter part of the nineteenth century . The traditional conceptualization of ownership may be encapsulated in the phrase, plena in re polestas, i.e the owner has the power to do as she pleases with the property owned, within limits imposed by law.

Nature of ownership is determined by the society within which ownership functions. It depends on the demand and needs of that particular society and are informed by the history of that particular society. The common law definition of ownership focuses on the theoretic completeness of the right by describing it as the most complete right a legal subject can have I relation to an object. This means that the owner has the most complete and absolute entitlements to his property. This comprehension is linked to the principle of nemo plus iuris ad alium transferre potest quam ipse haberet (no one can transfer more rights than he has). In other words, no one has more rights in relation to a thing than the owner and, when the owner is dispossessed and the property is put into the hands of a third party, ownership remains intact.

However the description of ownership as the most complete real right does not, however, mean that ownership is absolute or has no limits at all. Ownership has always been limited by the objective rules of the law (legislation and neighbour law) and the subjective rights of other persons (limited real rights and personal rights).

1.2Facts

Three of the brothers want to sell the land but the forth one refuses. They have exercised the right of way over the land marked B to the main road for the last twenty years, but the...