79 vegetal como semillas de lino, chía, frutas secas como la nuez de nogal y algunos

The field of this study has the unfortunate characteristic of lack of clear and uniform definitions and general accepted classifications. There might be several reasons for this, but that is not of immediate concern here. In this chapter the most important terms used throughout this study are introduced (§ 1). Furthermore the appearances of land registration through (historical) development of the use and marketability of land in societies is described. The use of land registration to owners and potential purchasers on a more or less active land market is what this study focuses on. (§ 2) The chapter gives a short overview of the main principles and features that can be found in systems of land registration (§ 3).

18 _{In general countries which have been under British rule at some point (almost half the}

world) have been influenced strongly by common law; the other countries are either influenced by continental European civil law, by Islamic law or by group-oriented customary law traditions.

19 _{Spanish and French are used in many former colonies of Spain and France, which}

quite often operate related systems as well (although France introduced Torrens systems in some of its colonies); German is used in several Middle European countries, and used as the lingua franca in discussing the revitalization of the Germanic system in the former communist Central European countries.

2.1 Terminology and Definitions

2.1.1 Terminology and English

unclear terminology

Within the field of systems of land registration, the use of terminology is very unclear throughout the world. Almost every country has its own system of land registration, which is adapted to its own needs and has developed throughout its own history. Many of these systems developed independently, or only with limited direct influence from the systems in other countries. Thus in many cases a country introduced its own terms for a certain part of the system, and in other cases a similar term was used for clearly distinguishable parts or solutions.

problems with English

In addition to the relative independent development of the system and terminology in each country, a lot of problems are created by translating terms into other languages. Especially problematic in this sense is the use of English as the lingua franca in the field when describing a non-common law country18_{. More limited land registration communities using}

the Spanish, French or German languages do exist19_{. Even the Nordic countries}

(Scandinavia and Finland) convene in ‘Scandinavian’ about this topic.

The problem of English as the lingua franca takes two forms. In the first place certain civil law principles have to be described by using English common law terms which do not really describe this principle correctly, making it difficult for anybody to correctly compare such principles (like mortgage for a hypothec). In the second place those trained in a common law environment usually only study non-common law systems from English-written sources, which will often give them a partly misleading picture, because they assume that a familiar common law term which has been used to approximate some principle, means the same under common law. To further complicate things there are also differences between the legal traditions and terminologies used within different English speaking countries (esp. between the US and the UK). Persons from a civil law environment do not immediately understand all English common law terms, and thus might be easier prompted to study at least some of the main features of common law to be able to use the English terminology. Nevertheless they often misinterpret or abuse English terms. Surely this happens somewhere in this study as well.

2.1.2 Land Registration and Cadastre

An important, and very confusing, distinction deals with the terms land registration (or registry) and cadastre (or cadaster) for which no universal definitions exist.

20 _{In the Netherlands it is often used for the whole system of land registration, including}

the deeds registers; in Austria it is meant to indicate the (basic) tax register and map, containing parcels with names of owners and valuation attributes; in Central and Eastern Europe it was used to indicate the registers with very detailed (agro-)technical assessment information; in the Nordic countries the term as such is unknown in the local languages.

21 _{Fédération Internationale des Géomètres = International Federation of Surveyors.}

Land registration

the process of recording legally recognized interests (ownership and/or use) in land

Cadastre

an official record of information about land parcels, including details of their bounds, tenure, use, and value

Definitions given by McLaughlin/Nichols 1989: 81-82 land registration

Land registration can be described by the definition already used in § 1.1.1 as “the process of recording legally recognized interests (ownership and/or use) in land” (McLaughlin/Nichols 1989: 81). The term ‘registration’ refers to an active process, whereby the result should be called a ‘register’ and an organization doing this a ‘registry’. Land registration usually refers to a predominantly legal registration, where one can see who (supposedly) owns some real property. It usually contains all relevant legal documents regarding real property. The term is more or less used exclusively in the Anglo-Saxon world, although the Middle European Grundbuch refers to virtually the same concept. In some cases land registration is exclusively used for ‘registration of title’ (see § 3.1.2). cadastre

A cadastre can be defined “as an official record of information about land parcels, including details of their bounds, tenure, use, and value” (McLaughlin/Nichols 1989: 82). It usually refers to a predominantly technical registration, which contains information on where a

property lies, what its boundaries are and how large it is. The use of the term cadastre has been mainly found in continental Europe, where it has shifting meanings20_{. In much of the} Anglo-Saxon world the term was virtually unused, although the term cadastral surveys has been in use for the surveying of property boundaries. The term is being promoted at the international level by the FIG21 _{in ‘The FIG Statement on the Cadastre’, which contains the} following description:

“A Cadastre is normally a parcel based, and up-to-date land information system containing a record of interests in land (e.g. rights, restrictions and responsibilities). It usually includes a geometric description of land parcels linked to other records describing the nature of the interests, the ownership or control of those interests, and often the value of the parcel and its improvements. It may be established for fiscal purposes (e.g. valuation and equitable taxation), legal purposes (conveyancing), to assist in the management of land and land use (e.g. for planning and other administrative purposes), and enables sustainable development and environmental protection.” (FIG 1995: 1).