THE FUNDAMENTAL FEATURES AND JUSTIFICATIONS FOR ADVERSE POSSESSION

Abstract

The doctrine of adverse possession enables the transfer of legal title to property from the owner to the adverse possessor upon the fulfillment of certain conditions by the later, one of which is that the property should have been occupied without the owner’s consent. The justifications commonly invoked in support of adverse possession same with statutes of limitations generally include the difficulty of proving stale claims, quieting titles to property, punishment to title owners who sleep on their rights, and the system of adverse possession focuses on the possessor, and in particular on the reliance interests that the possessor may have developed through longstanding possession of the property. The article seeks to answer the question whether the fundamental features can still be justified in the land registration system. The article adopts the doctrinal methods and finds that the traditional features though relevant and justifiable to unregistered land are no longer justifiable with respect to registered land as allowing its operation defeats the concept of registration. The work recommends restrictive judicial interpretation of the adverse possession provisions by applying restitution principles as the best way of protecting the interest of registered land owners.