Real property, sometimes called ‘real estate’, refers to ownership of land and things attached to it. Personal property, refers to everything else; movable objects, such as computers, cars, jewelry or intangible rights, such as stocks and shares. A right in rem is a right to a specific piece of property, contrasting to a right in personam which allows compensation for a loss, but not a particular thing back. Land law forms the basis for most kinds of property law, and is the most complex. It concerns mortgages, rental agreements, licences, covenants, easements and the statutory systems for land registration.
- Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Hong Kong also adopted the common law system.
- EU law is codified in treaties, but develops through de facto precedent laid down by the European Court of Justice.
- In common law legal systems, decisions by courts are explicitly acknowledged as “law” on equal footing with statutes adopted