What is Land Law?

Land law is concerned with legal relationships, which are sometimes complex. For example, different persons may have competing interests in land, they may all claim that they own all or some part of the land for some reason. Those interests which they claim may have a legal or equitable status.

Land law is concerned with determining and calculating those persons shares in the land, as well as their status. Those "owners" of the land may also have legal relationships with third parties. Third party interests in the land can be as diverse as the rights of a bank conferred by a mortgage over the land, the right of a neighbour to restrain the landowner from using the land for certain purposes, or to have access to the land by right of way. To complicate matters further, the landowner may allow someone to occupy all or part of the land, and that relationship may be by way of lease or licence.

Land law is also concerned with how each of these sorts of interests is protected (whether the interest is as an owner or as a third party) when the land is sold. Enforceability of interests depends, in part, on their method of creation and the statutory machinery for protection. The new Land Registration Act 2002 has attempted to simplify this machinery, and one of the questions for the law student is whether this goal has been achieved.