Bancolombia
It is a legal term in jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, United States of America, Dubai, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and The Bahamas. Real estate law is the body of regulations and legal codes which pertain to such matters under a particular jurisdiction and concerns such things as commercial and residential property ownership, development, and transactions. Real estate is often considered synonymous with real property (sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property (sometimes called 'chattels' or 'personalty' under 'chattel law' or 'personal property law'). The terms 'real estate' and 'real property' are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property. However, in some situations the term 'real estate' refers to the land and fixtures thereon together, as distinguished from 'real property', referring to the ownership of land and its appurtenances, including anything of a permanent nature such as structures, trees, minerals, and the interest, benefits, and inherent rights thereof. Real property is typically considered to be immovable property.
In the laws of the United States of America, the 'real' in 'real estate' means relating to a thing (res/'rei', thing, from O.Fr. 'reel', from L.L. 'realis' 'actual', from Latin. 'res', 'matter, thing'), as distinguished from a person. Thus the law broadly distinguishes between 'real' property (land and anything affixed to it) and 'personal' property or chattels (everything else, e.g., clothing, furniture, money). The conceptual difference was between 'immovable property', which would transfer title along with the land, and 'movable property', which a person could lawfully take and would retain title to on disposal of the land.
The oldest document using a term recognizable as 'real estate' in historical records is dated 1605. This use of 'real' also reflects the ancient feudal customs in relation to land and the ownership (and owners) thereof, introduced into England over 500 years earlier, by William the Conqueror in 1066.
Some people have claimed that the word 'real' in this sense is descended (like French 'royal' and Spanish 'real') from the Latin word for 'king'. In the feudal system (which has left many traces in the common law) the king was the owner of all land, and everyone who occupied land paid him rent directly or indirectly (through lords who in turn paid the king), in cash, goods, or services (including military service). Property tax, paid to the state, can be seen as a relic of that system, as too is the term fee simple. Some say this derivation is a misconception; but that is countered by evidence that the earliest meaning of 'real' in English included "Of, relating to, or characteristic of a monarch, royalty, or (by extension) the nobility, esp. with regard to power, wealth, or dignity; (also) befitting a monarch."
Additionally, there is evidence that the earliest meaning of 'real' in English included "Having an objective existence; actually existing physically as a thing, substantial; not imaginary." which supports the statement in the first paragraph of this section on the Etymology of the term 'real estate' that 'real' = 'relating to a thing…as distinguished from a person'. However, it needs to be borne in mind that the time between the Norman Conquest and the earliest recorded documentary appearance of 'real estate' allowed for both meanings of the word 'real' to gain common currency in verbal and written use in England, as individual words; and for the term 'real estate' to gain common currency in verbal and written use with the word 'real' in it having the same meanings, or, one, or even more, different meanings, to when it was used on its own; but of which there is no specific, historical documentary evidence.
On that basis, the reason for these several possible meanings of 'real' in relation to 'real estate' may have been that not all of England and Wales became 'real estate' in the 'royal' sense by reason only of the Norman Conquest. The Domesday Book provides evidence that some holdings of land in England and Wales remained in the hands of people, who were not the king. In other words, they were allodial land. Two main classes of that allodial land are distinguishable, by inference and synthesis, from, the Domesday Book; the passage and enforcement of the Act of Supremacy 1534 and Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 by Henry VIII of England; Welsh Law prior to 1535; and the history of Probate in England and Wales; namely, that of the Roman Catholic Church, and that of the parts of Wales where the custom known as 'dadunnedd' under Welsh Law applied.
Another etymological consequence of those radical measures by Henry VIII was that the expression 'real estate' became an official English expression, and the English 'law of real estate' became the official real estate law of England and Wales, because the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 included clauses requiring that, upon the day appointed by the statute, and thereafter, no law or language other than those of England shall be used in the courts of England and Wales. This meant that the laws of the Roman Catholic Church and of the former Welsh kings were eradicated from use throughout England and Wales. The clauses concerning language were repealed by Elizabeth II in 1993, to facilitate use of minority languages in the courts of England and Wales as the populations of those nations had by then become multi-cultural, because those clauses infringed the human rights of the people that spoke them.
English Real Estate Law recognises rights of way, etc., on land beyond the limits of the subject land, including rights of passage and repassage over other lands, including such parts of those other lands between the high and low water marks of tidal waters adjoinging them, for use by the king of the subject land and his servants and assigns for the purposes of travel and transportation, subject to the rule, 'All that the king has is the right of passage and repassage for himself and his subjects.' Such rights of passage and repassage were known as the 'King's Highways', or, as nowadays, the 'Queen's Highways', depending on the gender of the monarch, and have a history in England stretching back to at least the year 859 of the modern era and at least the C14th in Wales, though there is evidence that it was much earlier than both.
Such antiquity and the origins and purposes of the Law of Hywel Dda, and of its supposed blessing by the Pope, strongly suggests that the concept of 'the King's Highways' in law may have originated in the days of the Roman Empire after Christianity became its official religion, and that the 'king' in 'King's Highways' meant the Son of God, in his capacity as the 'King of Kings', and that it meant all of the earth above sea level apart from the rivers and lakes on it, because, as Christianity believes, he can walk on water, and that 'real estate' originally meant all of the earth and all objects and life on and in it, as that is what Christianity believes to be his inheritance. It is evidence from the period of the Crusades in Europe that pilgrims, adherents, servants and soldiers of the Roman Catholic Church had similar rights throughout over most, if not all, of that continent, and of parts of the Middle East and North Africa, which again suggests that they originated in the days of the Roman Empire after Christianity became its official religion and originally meant all of that land, not just narrow strips of it.
So, the land designated in law over which such travel and transportation rights of passage and repassage for a king and his subjects existed could be a candidate for the 'real' in 'real estate' meaning 'relating to a thing, distinguished from a person', the 'thing' being the lawful entitlement 'title' of the king and his subjects to the use and enjoyment of those rights of passage and repassage. But the term 'highways' is the lawful name of such strips of land in Britain. The earliest legal document containing a word that is recognizably 'highway' was the one in the year 859 mentioned above.
In the laws of the United States of America, the 'real' in 'real estate' means relating to a thing (res/'rei', thing, from O.Fr. 'reel', from L.L. 'realis' 'actual', from Latin. 'res', 'matter, thing'), as distinguished from a person. Thus the law broadly distinguishes between 'real' property (land and anything affixed to it) and 'personal' property or chattels (everything else, e.g., clothing, furniture, money). The conceptual difference was between 'immovable property', which would transfer title along with the land, and 'movable property', which a person could lawfully take and would retain title to on disposal of the land.
The oldest document using a term recognizable as 'real estate' in historical records is dated 1605. This use of 'real' also reflects the ancient feudal customs in relation to land and the ownership (and owners) thereof, introduced into England over 500 years earlier, by William the Conqueror in 1066.
Some people have claimed that the word 'real' in this sense is descended (like French 'royal' and Spanish 'real') from the Latin word for 'king'. In the feudal system (which has left many traces in the common law) the king was the owner of all land, and everyone who occupied land paid him rent directly or indirectly (through lords who in turn paid the king), in cash, goods, or services (including military service). Property tax, paid to the state, can be seen as a relic of that system, as too is the term fee simple. Some say this derivation is a misconception; but that is countered by evidence that the earliest meaning of 'real' in English included "Of, relating to, or characteristic of a monarch, royalty, or (by extension) the nobility, esp. with regard to power, wealth, or dignity; (also) befitting a monarch."
Additionally, there is evidence that the earliest meaning of 'real' in English included "Having an objective existence; actually existing physically as a thing, substantial; not imaginary." which supports the statement in the first paragraph of this section on the Etymology of the term 'real estate' that 'real' = 'relating to a thing…as distinguished from a person'. However, it needs to be borne in mind that the time between the Norman Conquest and the earliest recorded documentary appearance of 'real estate' allowed for both meanings of the word 'real' to gain common currency in verbal and written use in England, as individual words; and for the term 'real estate' to gain common currency in verbal and written use with the word 'real' in it having the same meanings, or, one, or even more, different meanings, to when it was used on its own; but of which there is no specific, historical documentary evidence.
On that basis, the reason for these several possible meanings of 'real' in relation to 'real estate' may have been that not all of England and Wales became 'real estate' in the 'royal' sense by reason only of the Norman Conquest. The Domesday Book provides evidence that some holdings of land in England and Wales remained in the hands of people, who were not the king. In other words, they were allodial land. Two main classes of that allodial land are distinguishable, by inference and synthesis, from, the Domesday Book; the passage and enforcement of the Act of Supremacy 1534 and Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 by Henry VIII of England; Welsh Law prior to 1535; and the history of Probate in England and Wales; namely, that of the Roman Catholic Church, and that of the parts of Wales where the custom known as 'dadunnedd' under Welsh Law applied.
Another etymological consequence of those radical measures by Henry VIII was that the expression 'real estate' became an official English expression, and the English 'law of real estate' became the official real estate law of England and Wales, because the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 included clauses requiring that, upon the day appointed by the statute, and thereafter, no law or language other than those of England shall be used in the courts of England and Wales. This meant that the laws of the Roman Catholic Church and of the former Welsh kings were eradicated from use throughout England and Wales. The clauses concerning language were repealed by Elizabeth II in 1993, to facilitate use of minority languages in the courts of England and Wales as the populations of those nations had by then become multi-cultural, because those clauses infringed the human rights of the people that spoke them.
English Real Estate Law recognises rights of way, etc., on land beyond the limits of the subject land, including rights of passage and repassage over other lands, including such parts of those other lands between the high and low water marks of tidal waters adjoinging them, for use by the king of the subject land and his servants and assigns for the purposes of travel and transportation, subject to the rule, 'All that the king has is the right of passage and repassage for himself and his subjects.' Such rights of passage and repassage were known as the 'King's Highways', or, as nowadays, the 'Queen's Highways', depending on the gender of the monarch, and have a history in England stretching back to at least the year 859 of the modern era and at least the C14th in Wales, though there is evidence that it was much earlier than both.
Such antiquity and the origins and purposes of the Law of Hywel Dda, and of its supposed blessing by the Pope, strongly suggests that the concept of 'the King's Highways' in law may have originated in the days of the Roman Empire after Christianity became its official religion, and that the 'king' in 'King's Highways' meant the Son of God, in his capacity as the 'King of Kings', and that it meant all of the earth above sea level apart from the rivers and lakes on it, because, as Christianity believes, he can walk on water, and that 'real estate' originally meant all of the earth and all objects and life on and in it, as that is what Christianity believes to be his inheritance. It is evidence from the period of the Crusades in Europe that pilgrims, adherents, servants and soldiers of the Roman Catholic Church had similar rights throughout over most, if not all, of that continent, and of parts of the Middle East and North Africa, which again suggests that they originated in the days of the Roman Empire after Christianity became its official religion and originally meant all of that land, not just narrow strips of it.
So, the land designated in law over which such travel and transportation rights of passage and repassage for a king and his subjects existed could be a candidate for the 'real' in 'real estate' meaning 'relating to a thing, distinguished from a person', the 'thing' being the lawful entitlement 'title' of the king and his subjects to the use and enjoyment of those rights of passage and repassage. But the term 'highways' is the lawful name of such strips of land in Britain. The earliest legal document containing a word that is recognizably 'highway' was the one in the year 859 mentioned above.
