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1 J. Sustainable Dev. L. & Pol'y 1 (2013)

handle is hein.journals/jsusdvlp1 and id is 1 raw text is: Afe Babalola University: Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Polcy Vol. 1 Iss. 1 (2013) pp. 1-20 THE NATURE OF LAND OWNERSHIP AND THE PROTECTION OF THE PURCHASER Clement C Chigbo* ABSTRACT This article examines the nature of owners hzjt of land and derivative or subordinate real- rghts under English law drawing some comparison with Romanic-Dutch ownersh while arguing that the Anglo-American estate' or interest' in land is a mere semantic conundrum. It is the position of this writer that the concept of ownershfp in English law of real property, which dominantly influences our realproperty law in Ngeria and other common law jurisdictions such as the Bahamas and Jamaica, has not brought the desirable clarity to our real property jurisprudence/practice in Nigeria. The unfortunate problems faced by purchasers of real estate in some common law jurisdiction are also briefly examined in this article. The article seeks to advance a solution to these problems and in this context the writer strongly suggests that a land registration spstem of some model should be adopted in Nigeria and the Bahamas to protect purchasers of real estates and guarantee greater security of title and clarity in our conveyanang practice. INTRODUCTION Land is elemental. It is where life begins and it is where life ends. Land provides the physical substratum for human activity; it is the essential base of all social and commercial interaction. Land law is, accordingly, that part of the law which governs the allocation of rights and obligations in relation to 'real' or 'immovable' property. We spend scarcely a moment out of contact with terra firma and our very existence is constantly sustained and shaped by the natural and constructed world around us. The significance of land in human affairs is therefore incalculable, although it is only in an era of global environmental threat that we slowly begin to realize how fragile and irreplaceable the rich resource on which we so utterly depend is. In the case of real property, as was once observed, 'there is a defined and limited supply of the commodity. Land ownership bites both upon two concepts or forms of ownership i.e. the principal or dominant right and ownership of third party rights which are commonly known as subordinate real rights: X owns land for instance, but others may have rights in that land for land is an asset that lots of people can do lots of things with. We can live on it, build on it, work over it, catch fish in river or on it, play on it, and trade both on it and in it.2 Moreover, land is said to be static or stationary in the sense that it stays where it is, unlike say ships and other moveable items.3 At any given time a multitude of interests and rights can exists in one and the same land. More than anything else, the fact of the possibility of existence of multiplicity of interests and rights in land spins a serious conundrum in dealing with land ownership and prospective purchasers are usually faced with potential problems where issues are not * Solicitor of England and Wales, Chigbo is a Peripatetic Lecturer in Law in the UK, the Bahamas and Nigeria. He is presently with the College of Law, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. 1 Linden Gardens Trust Ltd v Lenesta Sludge Disposals Ltd (1994) 1 AC 85 at 107D per Lord Brown-Wilkinson. 2 See Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test 2007, Property Manual, BPP Professional Education 2007, London, England, p 1-5 3 These items are classified as personal property in contradistinction to land that is classified as real property.

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