Common Law & Civil Law Property * A Conversation * Professor Kirsten Anker Professor David Lametti 22 March, 2011

Common Law Property * Idiosyncrasies* Archaic terminology Fee simple estate, freehold tenure, seisin, feoffee, replevin, ejectment Sources and defining property No “owners” Title is relative Possession gives rights All titles “held of” the Crown Five dimensions of property in land Divisions over time Legal and equitable interests Aboriginal rights

Civil Law Property : *Absolutes* Patrimonial Rights $$$

Extra-patrimonial Rights Ownership Real Rights Patrimonial Rights Personal Rights Extra-patrimonial Rights [Aubry v. Vice-Versa]

Defining Property - Caselaw Yanner v. Eaton (1999) The ultimate fact about property is that it does not really exist: it is mere illusion. (“native title”) INS v. Associated Press (1918) Property, a creation of law, does not arise from value, although exchangeable – a matter of fact. (“hot news”) Storey-Bishoff v. Storey-Bishoff (1994) One of the inherent qualities of property is that it may be transferred, bought, sold, exchanged, gifted or hypothecated. (“degrees as matrimonial property”) Stewart v. The Queen (1988) As the term "property" is simply a reference to the cluster of rights assigned to the owner, this protection [for confidential information in the commercial field] could be given in the form of proprietary rights. (“theft of information”)

Defining Property - Statutes Land Titles Act “property” means land designated as a property under subsection 141 (2) or (4) Mortgages Act; Trespass to Property Act (property not defined) Conveyancing and Law of Property Act “property” includes real and personal property, a debt, a thing in action, and any other right or interest. Family Law Act “property” means any interest, present or future, vested or contingent, in real or personal property

Defining Property - Commentaries Blackstone 1760 Property is the ‘sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion of the right of any other individual in the universe.’ Classifications: Real (corporeal, incorporeal); Personal (tangible, intangible) Hohfeld and Honoré (following Bentham) Person to person Socially constructed bundles of rights Property rights indistinct from other rights (Gray) Both “owner” and “object” have become abstract and diffuse

Civil Law: Codes, Doctrine, cases

947. Ownership is the right to use, enjoy and dispose of property fully and freely, subject to the limits and conditions for doing so determined by law. Ownership may be in various modes and dismemberments. 947. La propriété est le droit d’user, de jouir et de disposer librement et complètement d’un bien, sous réserve des limites et des conditions d’exercice fixées par la loi. Elle est susceptible de modalités et de démembrements.

911. A person, alone or with others, may hold a right of ownership or other real right in a property, or have possession of the property. A person may also hold or administer the property of others or be trustee of property appropriated to a particular purpose. 911. On peut, a l’égard d’un bien, etre tiulaire, seul ou avec d’autres, d’un droit de propriété ou d’un autre droit réel, ou encore être possesseur du bien. On peut aussi être détenteur ou administrateur du bien d’autrui, ou être fiduciaire d’un bien affecté à une fin particulière.

899. Property, whether corporeal or incorporeal, is divided into immovables and movables. 899. Les biens, tant corporels qu’incorporels, se divisent en immeubles et en meubles.

Where are the owners in the Common Law? The feudal pyramid The king as absolute lord “Seisin” = right to enjoy returns of the land Different kinds of “tenures” Decline of feudalism Tenures converted into “free and common socage” Land granted to tenant and his heirs The “estate” as the object of inheritance Different slices of time possible fee simple, fee tail, life estate, conditional estates

5 Dimensions of Property in Land Leasehold Estate Life Estate Fee Simple Estate Time – 4th dimension 2 dimensions 3 dimensions 3 dimensions Legal Interest Equitable Interest Equity – a second layer of estates and interests – the 5th dimension

Umm… The owners? The importance of possession Multiple persons entitled to land Disputes solved by “seisin” Presumption that possession was legitimate The role of writs and remedies Writ of right Writ of entry Assize of novel disseissin, mort d’ancestor Writ of ejectment (leasehold→freehold); now part of trespass Larceny a crime against possession “Ownership” understood variously in terms of protection, limitation and title

Civil Law Property Attempts to organize these impulses… according to kinds of objects & rights according who « owns » according to whose rights according to time, space

976. Neighbours shall suffer the normal neighbourhood annoyances that are not beyond the limit of tolerance they owe each other, according to the nature or location of their land or local custom. 976. Les voisins doivent accepter les inconvénients normaux du voisinage qui n’excèdent pas les limites de la tolérance qu’ils doivent, suivant la nature ou la situation de leurs fonds, ou suivant les usages locaux.

Extra-patrimonial Rights 947 Ownership Co-ownership [1010] Special Modes Superficies [1011] Real Rights Patrimonial Rights Usufruct [1120] Dismemberments [1119] Personal Rights Emphyteusis [1195] Servitude [1177] Extra-patrimonial Rights [Aubry v. Vice-Versa] Innominate Real Rights?

Civil Law Property Supposedly absolute, BUT perhaps not quite so …

976. Neighbours shall suffer the normal neighbourhood annoyances that are not beyond the limit of tolerance they owe each other, according to the nature or location of their land or local custom. 976. Les voisins doivent accepter les inconvénients normaux du voisinage qui n’excèdent pas les limites de la tolérance qu’ils doivent, suivant la nature ou la situation de leurs fonds, ou suivant les usages locaux.

Civil Law Property : *Absolute?* Limits on each form of real right Limits on certain objects Possession And historical contingencies: The Crown (and common law) in Quebec Aboriginal « interests »: rights and title in Quebec The modern, global context

Example 1 – Who “owns” the baseball? Popov v. Hayashi “Significant but incomplete steps to achieve possession … interrupted by the unlawful acts of others [give rise to] a pre-possessory interest … a qualified right to possession.

Example 2 – Conditional Estates: ruling from the grave Defeasible fee An estate terminated before its natural end by the fulfillment of a condition “To A provided he never marries a Roman Catholic” Condition removed if invalid Determinable fee An estate limited from the outset by conditioning event “To A for the time that she lives in Toronto” Invalid condition voids whole grant

Example 3 – Quasi-public space Harrison v. Carswell (1975) Picketing (statutory labour right) on shopping centre sidewalk Dixson (majority) private property central in Canadian law right to exclude can only be curtailed by explicit legislation Laskin (minority) historical purpose of trespass relates to privacy interests of owners v members of public can be reconciled by limiting right to exclude to misbehaviour calls up civil law abuse of rights Statutory amendments Charter rights CCC v. Canada R v. Layton

Example 4 – Barriere Lake: unceded Algonquin territory

Aboriginal rights Doctrine of continuity Three categories of colony conquest cession settlement Pre-existing rights? “Some tribes are so low in the scale of civilization…” Re Southern Rhodesia (1919) Must not “render [aboriginal] title conceptually in terms which are appropriate only to systems which have grown up under English law” Amodu Tijani (1921) Which category for Canada?

Aboriginal rights in Quebec R v. Adams; R v. Coté (1996) Regardless of recognition by French regime, s.35 protects activities “central to the distinctive culture of aboriginal societies prior to contact” Legislative infringement possible if justified Difficult to establish commercial rights Aboriginal title for “semi-nomadic” peoples? Exclusive possession (Delgamuukw) Sui generis, reconciliation of two perspectives Regular, not occasional use Comprehensive claim agreements since 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec, Nunavik completed Mi’maq, Innu in progress