Rights associated with land Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Rights associated with land - Essay Example Fishing rights in England and Scotland are private as opposed to public rights in USA, while water rights follow a riparian system in the UK and USA, except the western states where an appropriation system is used. Mineral Rights are provided to property owners who may have the right to allocate subsurface rights to other parties, but in England and Scotland the rights to precious and energy minerals rests with the Crown, while rights of ownership to other minerals may also rest with community bodies. Mineral Rights: In Scotland, land ownership is based on a feudal system whereby the owner or feuar was subjected to title conditions with reservations of mineral rights. Under the feudal system, previous owners of property known as feudal superiors, retained rights over the land even after it was sold, together with the right to enforce title conditions. (www.hmitchell.co.uk). This system was recently abolished under the Abolition of Feudal Tenure (Scotland) Act 2000, however despite the abolition of the system, a reservation of mineral rights in the feudal title still remains valid. As a result, it may restrict the mineral rights of owners of property. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 provides communities and crofts with the pre-emptive rights to acquire mineral rights, with the exception of oil, gas, coal, gold or silver.(www.lindsays.co.uk) The ownership of the rights to precious and energy minerals is vested in the Government. Throughout the U.K, mineral rights to gold and silver are owned by the Crown and the mines of these metals are known as mines royal.