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 adversepossessor upon the fulfillment of certain conditions by the later, one of which is that the property should havebeen occupied without the owner’s consent. The justifications commonly invoked in support of adverse possessionsame 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 thepossessor, and in particular on the reliance interests that the possessor may have developed through longstandingpossession of the property. The article seeks to answer the question whether the fundamental features can still bejustified in the land registration system. The article adopts the doctrinal methods and finds that the traditionalfeatures though relevant and justifiable to unregistered land are no longer justifiable with respect to registeredland as allowing its operation defeats the concept of registration. The work recommends restrictive judicialinterpretation of the adverse possession provisions by applying restitution principles as the best way of protectingthe interest of registered land owners.