WEEK 9

SUBTOPICS:

 Introduction to the Zambian legal system on land law

 English legal systems governing land law
 Land tenure
 Tenants
 Fee Simple
 Compare the Zambian and English legal systems of land law
 Land law terminologies such as doctrines of tenure and estates
 Land Policy and Legal Reform

Introduction

Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others
from land. In many jurisdictions, these kinds of property are referred to as real estate or real
property, as distinct from personal property.

Objectives

By the end of this topic, students must be able to understand;

 Introduction to the Zambian legal system on land law

 English legal systems governing land law
 Land tenure
 Tenants
 Fee Simple

Definition of concepts

English land law is the law of real property in England and Wales. Because of its heavy
historical and social significance, land is usually seen as the most important part of English
property law. Ownership of land has its roots in the feudal system established by William the
Conqueror after 1066, and with a gradually diminishing aristocratic presence, now sees a large
number of owners playing in an active market for real estate. The modern law's sources derive
from the old courts of common law and equity which includes legislation such as the Law of
Property Act 1925, the Settled Land Act 1925, the Land Charges Act 1972, the Trusts of Land
and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 and the Land Registration Act 2002, and the European
Convention on Human Rights.

Land Tenure
In common law systems, land tenure is the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual,
who is said to "hold" the land. The French verb "tenir" means "to hold" and "tenant" is the
present participle of "tenir". The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown, held land in its own
right.
Tenants
Tenant may refer to: An occupier of a leasehold estate. Tenement (law), the holder of a legal
interest in real estate. A group of users who share a common access to a software system, see
multitenancy. Tenant farmer.

Fee simple
In English law, a fee simple or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold
ownership. It is a way that real estate may be owned in common law countries, and is the highest
possible ownership interest that can be held in real property.

WEEK 10

Introduction
The history of English land law can be traced into Roman times, and through the Dark Ages
under Saxon monarchs where, as for most of human history, land was the dominant source of
personal wealth. English land law transformed from the industrial revolution and over the 19th
century, as the political power of the landed aristocracy diminished, and modern legislation
increasingly made land a social form of wealth, subject to extensive social regulation, such as for
housing, national parks, and agriculture. In Zambia, Land is held both under customary law and
statutory Law.

Objectives

By the end of this topic, students should be able to

 Compare the Zambian and English legal systems of land law

 Understand Land law terminologies such as doctrines of tenure and estates
 Understand Land Policy and Legal Reform

Definition of concepts

Tenure & Estates

In common law systems, land tenure is the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual,
who is said to "hold" the land. The French verb "tenir" means "to hold" and "tenant" is the
present participle of "tenir". The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown, held land in its own
right. All private owners are either its tenants or sub-tenants. Tenure signifies the relationship
between tenant and lord, not the relationship between tenant and land.Over history, many
different forms of land ownership, i.e., ways of owning land, have been established.
A landholder/landowner is a holder of the estate in land with considerable rights of ownership or,
simply put, an owner of land.

English Land tenure system

Even before the Norman Conquest, there was a strong tradition of landholding in Anglo-Saxon
law. When William the Conqueror asserted sovereignty over England in 1066, he confiscated the
property of the recalcitrant English landowners. Over the next dozen years, he granted land to his
lords and to the dispossessed Englishmen, or affirmed their existing land holdings, in exchange
for fealty and promises of military and other services. At the time of the Domesday Book, all
land in England was held by someone, and from that time there has been no allodial land
in England. In order to legitimise the notion of the Crown's paramount lordship, a legal fiction -
that all land titles were held by the King's subjects as a result of a royal grant - was adopted.
Most of these tenants-in-chief had considerable land holdings and proceeded to grant parts of
their land to their subordinates. This constant process of granting new tenures was known
as subinfeudation. It created a complicated pyramid of feudal relationships. (see also Lord of the
manor). At the bottom of the feudal pyramid were the tenants who lived on and worked the land
(called the tenants in demesne and also the tenant paravail). In the middle were the lords who
had no direct relationship with the King, or with the land in question - referred to as mesne lords.
Land was granted in return for various "services" and "incidents". A service was an obligation on
the part of the tenant owed to the landlord. The most important were payment of rent (socage
tenure), military service (Knight-service), the performance of some form of religious service
(frankalmoin) and personal/official service, including in times of war (serjeanty tenure).
Incidents, on the other hand, were rights conferred on the lord over the tenant's land or the
tenant's person that arose in certain circumstances, most commonly on the death of the tenant.
An important incident was that of escheat, whereby the land of the tenant by knight service
would escheat to the Crown in the event either of there being no heirs, or the knight's being
convicted of a felony.