ABSTRACT
The essentially proprietary nature of an easement, which allows its benefit and burden to be passed to whosoever comes to own an estate in the land, means that care must be taken in defining the types of right that may be recognised as an ‘easement’. The law of easements must accommodate the needs of the dominant tenement, while at the same time ensuring that the servient tenement does not become overburdened and inalienable, all in the context of a modern society. In June 2011, the Law Commission published its final report on Making Land Work: Easements, Covenants and Profits a Prendre. Profits a prendre are often considered alongside easements, not least because they also give rights over land belonging to another. In registered land, the benefit of an easement becomes part of the dominant tenement and automatically passes to a purchaser, whether legal or equitable.
