Property law

The subject of property has attracted and continues to attract interest, bewilderment and much critism at global, national and local levels. Humankind’s concern in daily life is usually the idea of rights, the right to ‘things’ or relationships and situations. These juristic concerns extend to claims on both corporeal and incorporeal things that are vital for survival. It is for this reason that man continuesto strive to establish dominion over subjects of ownership. William Blackstone rightly observed that, “there is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property; or that sole and despotic dominion which one manclaims and exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion of the right of any other individual in the universe.” The importance of these subjects of ownership has seen numerous studies being undertaken to disinter the root of claims over material endowments. Focus has especially been put on the study of property rights in land, with various theoretical justifications being conceptualised to explain these claims.