allodial system


Allodial System

A system of ownership by which an owner has all rights associated with possessing a property, subject only to limitations such as police power or eminent domain. The allodial system in its most extreme form is expressed in late Roman law: a property owner has the right to "use and abuse" his/her property.

allodial system

A system of real property law in which individuals may fully own all the rights associated with property and dispose of that property as they wish.The system had been evolving for many centuries,but the theory and the term were first clearly articulated by Thomas Jefferson in 1774,when he argued against an attempted land grab by King George III and used the theory to provide one of the supports for the American Revolutionary War.Contrast the allodial system with the feudal system, in which the sovereign owned all land and could grant usage rights to others, but those rights were revocable at will.