Time Limited Interests in Land

Highlights the pivotal role time-limited interests can play in estate planning and the development of social housing and pristine land.

Cornelius Van Der Merwe (Edited by), Alain-Laurent Verbeke (Edited by)

9781107026124, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 June 2012

576 pages, 1 table
23.6 x 16 x 3 cm, 1.04 kg

'The general editors and the contributors are to be commended for undertaking such a bold piece of work that can justifiably claim to be a go-to reference for the comparative study of time-limited interests in land, striking a balance between historical, domestic and comparative scholarship in a pragmatic manner.' Malcolm M. Combe, Zeitschrift fur Europaisches Privatrecht

A comprehensive comparative treatment of six instances of time-limited interests in land as encountered in fourteen European jurisdictions. The survey explores the commercial or social origins of each legal institution concerned and highlights their enforceability against third parties, their content and their role in land development. The commercial purpose of residential and agricultural leases is contrasted with the social aim of personal servitudes (and its common-law equivalent liferent) to provide sustenance for life to mostly family members making the latter an important estate planning device. Whereas the ingrained principles of leases and personal servitudes restrain the full exploitation of land, it is indicated that public authorities and private capital could combine to turn the old-fashioned time-limited institutions of hereditary building lease (superficies) and hereditary land lease (emphyteusis) into pivotal devices in alleviating the acute shortage of social housing and in promoting the fullest exploitation of pristine agricultural land.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Setting the scene
2. General introduction
3. Historical evolution of the maxim 'sale breaks hire'
4. The many faces of usufruct
Part II. Case Studies
Part III. Concluding Remarks.

Subject Areas: Property law [LNS], Laws of Specific jurisdictions [LN], Law [L]