ABSTRACT
The common understanding of property within Western societies is the right to exclusive ownership and control of a specified object. In a legal sense, property is defined not as the object itself but, rather, the relationship which an individual or a corporation has with the object and with the rest of the world in relation to that object. The character of the relationship may vary according to a range of factors which include: the nature of the object (the object may be tangible or intangible, land or chattels), the duration of time for which the relationship is expressed to exist, the jurisdiction in which the relationship is legally enforceable and, more fundamentally, the political, legal and economic structure of the society in which it is enforced.
