ABSTRACT
First, an easement confers a benefit on the dominant tenement (i.e. the benefited land), enabling the owner for the time being of that land to use the easement: for example, to walk across a neighbour’s land, or to receive light or to use a drainage channel. Second, an easement places a burden on the servient tenement (i.e. the burdened land), requiring the owner for the time being of that land to suffer the exercise of the easement: for example, to allow a neighbour to walk across it, or not to interfere with the passage of light to a neighbour or to permit the drainage of water.6 Moreover, as implied by the above analysis, the easement once created confers a benefit and burden on the land itself, so that in principle it may be enjoyed or suffered by any subsequent owner of the dominant or servient land. In other words, the easement is not merely personal to the persons who originally created it. It is a proprietary interest in land, so that (subject to the rules of registered and unregistered conveyancing) the benefit of it passes with a transfer of the dominant tenement and the burden of it passes with a transfer of the servient tenement.
