Land Law: Basic Concepts (1): What is Land? (a) Three Dimensions of Land

Many LLB (Hons) Law students have recently successfully completed their Year One studies - congratulations! You are now looking forward to Year Two, and for many of you that will include - Land Law. One of the most challenging aspects of Land Law is that it uses both concepts not otherwise common in everyday life, and also everyday words in unusual ways. One of those is 'land' itself - and we are going to need several posts to explain it (yes, that is an ominous sign).

(a) Three Dimensions of Land

(i) Yes, Three ...

It's easy to see a map and think 'Ah, yes - two dimensions - north-south and east-west.' But that is an error. Land tends to have tall things on it - mountains, trees, buildings like the Spinnaker Tower (above). English & Welsh Land Law insists that it must be capable of thinking about such things - and so land at common law has a third dimension - height ...

(ii) That Means Both Up AND Down

... and depth, thus the other image above, of a cave. There is some entertaining American caselaw about fights between landowners over the ownership of caves (for the tourist revenue), but in England and Wales the more usual argument is about the ownership of minerals - eg if some are found under your land. As the Latin goes, cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos.

(iii) Which Can Be Split in Different Directions (often are)

So it might in principle all be yours, all the way up and all the way down (that Latin tag), but there are common-sense limits - albeit ill-defined ones - and in practice you may not want everything above and under your land, lacking the skills or resources to exploit it. So you might sell (lease) that seam of minerals to a mining company for a time, for them to extract it (and pay you rent from and/or a share of their profits). Aeroplanes will fly over you without making payments.

(iv) 'Flying Freeholds'

The same can also be done with a freehold. There's a clue in the name about the problem - 'free-hold' - you own it with few obligations to your neighbours. Most of the time in England & Wales this is thought a good thing (discuss ...) - often expressed as 'your home is your castle.' But this is a problem in the making when the castle-owner above/ below your castle decides to weaken remove or misuse theirs, leaving you at the mercy of gravity and the four winds ...