ABSTRACT
Land law is that body of law, both written and unwritten, which establishes the kinds of interests that people can acquire in land and how such interests can be transferred, modified and terminated.
it seems that the customs of communities allowed for land to be owned on a communal or joint basis, as well as by individuals, although communal ownership was more common. In most countries of the region, the right to ownership was based primarily upon discovery and original occupation of land, and then upon succession to the original occupiers of the land. Under the customs of most countries, land could be exchanged or given away by the owners and/or by the chiefs of the communities for special reasons, such as a reward for special services, or as an atonement or compensation for some wrong. On the other hand, sales of land, that is, transfers of land for money or some other object of value, do not seem to have been very common until the arrival of Europeans.
