In very much the same way may the numerous and important rights in another's land in re. aliena), such as easement:, profits. and the like, be regarded. Though falling far short of ownership of the land affected by them. they are true property rights, being protected from dis turbance by any person whatsoever and not only against the owner of the land.
Here, then, we reach the outermost limits of property rights. Other rights there are affecting land or goods which do not attain to the dimity of property. Of this nature is the right of the disseiser who is shut out of his land 'by an ad verse possession. the right of entry for condition broken, the right to enforce a covenant running with the land, and the extensive class of rights known as equitable easements. These are all 'mere rights,' as the common law designates them. rights in persona Ia. available against a spe cific individual, and not property rights, which are, strictly speaking. always rights in rum, as serted in the face of the whole world ,and capable of being infringed by any one who chooses to take the consequences.
The classification of property as corporeal and incorporeal is also peculiar to our legal system. Of course it has no rational basis. All rights are incorporeal. i.e. intangible, and the things which are the subject-matter of property rights are nsuallv tangible corporeal things. It may, in deed, be admitted that such property as advow sons, tithes, offices. and the like. as well as the more modern forms of property denoted by the terms patent rights and copyrights. are incor poreal in the strictest sense of the term. But in Blackstone's use of the expression it includes easements, commons, and other profits a prendre, and all future estates in land, as reversions and remainders. Thus the estate of a tenant for life or years is corporeal property, whereas that of the landlord. being for the time dissociated from the possession of the land itself, is described as incorporeal. But the classification was only a convenient expression for such interests in real property as 'lay in livery' (i.e. were susceptible
of physical control and therefore of delivery) and such as 'lay in grant' and could be transferred only by deed and not by livery of seisin. It did not, therefore, aim at philosophic completeness and has never been extended so as to include per sonal property.
Only the most important of the incidents of property can here be referred to. Where own ership is absolute and undivided, the right to use and enjoy one's own, whether real or personal property. is limited only by the rule that requires a man to use his property in such ways as not to injure his neighbor. Where the ownership is divided, however. the right of enjoyment is hedged about with numerous and complicated restric tions and there is law of waste and of trover to protect the owner who is out of possession. Though now bound up with the very conception of property, the unlimited rights of alienation and of inheritance have not always been recog nized by our law, even with respect to personal property. In the case of real property. particu larly, those rights, now complete. were wrested with diftieulty and only after many years of ef fort from the feudal system. The right to trans mit lands by will way only eoneeded by Parlia ment in 32 Hen. VIII. (1527). For other incidents of property. see ENIBLEMENT; FIXTURES: WAsTE. For modes of acquiring property. see ACCES SION; ALIENATION: CONvEYANCE: DISTRIBUTION; GRANT; INHERITANCE; ?)CCUPANCT; The authorities are numerous. Consult espe cially Blackstone. Comm, on the La les of England; Leake. Diye,:t of the Lair of Property in Land I London. 1S741 ; Williams, feral Property (19th el.. London, 19001; Williams, Personal Property (15th ed., London, 1900) ; Schouler, rsonal Prop. rt y ; Pollock and Maitland. 11 is 1 ory of English Lair ed., Boston aml London.
1899 ; Bullet L \\ right, Tway on Possession in the Cosa I..( La or (Oxford, Eng., 1SSS) ; Ra leigh. Ontiim of the of Proport y (Oxford, i : Jurisprudence (9th ed., London 0»d New 1 ork, 1900).