Property Law I

At the end of this course, students should be able to: 1. define the fundamentals of property Law; 2. explain the concepts of property ownership and land titling terminology in Nigeria; 3. describe land use patterns and community land rights patterns; and 4. state the different law types in practice in Nigeria.

Introduction: (a) legal notions of property (b) historical evolution of land law in Nigeria (c) sources of Nigerian land law (d) working terminologies – ownership, possession, titles, rights, liability and land. Customary land law/Islamic land law: (a) modes of acquiring title to land, settlement; expansion; loan or borrowing; pledge or pawn; gift; conquest, allotment, kola tenancy (b) concept and ownership of land: (i) nature of title to land (ii) control and management of community land – individual rights and extent of community land today (iii) creation of family land – nature and extent of member’s right in family land; control of family land, alienation of family land, recovery of family land. Improvement by a member of family land, termination of family land (iv) an outline of succession to rights in land. Legal regulation of property: (a) the Land Use Act – state control of land; grant of right of occupancy; what Certificate of Occupancy connotes; alienation of Certificate of Occupancy; revocation of Certificate of Occupancy; compensation for revocation (b) relationship between Land Use Act and State land law (c) an outline of control of natural resources – minerals, water and forests; agrarian reforms (d) rights and interest in land – freehold, joint tenancy, tenancy in common, prescription, laches, acquiescence, leasehold, easements, profit a Pender, covenants, mortgages, (e) registration – registration of instruments, registration of title.