Servitude in civil law

In civil law systems, a servitude is a qualified beneficial interest carved out of full ownership and attached either to another parcel of land or to a particular person, operating as a subordinate real right alongside easements and security interests. Predial servitudes burden one property, the servient estate, for the benefit of another, the dominant estate, transfer automatically with ownership, and are treated as perpetual, while personal servitudes such as usufruct, life interests, and easements in gross benefit an individual rather than a property and generally cannot be transferred unless the grant allows it. A servitude cannot compel the burdened owner to perform a positive act; it can only restrict certain uses of the land or require the owner to tolerate specified activity on it. The doctrine descends from Roman law and has been codified in modern civil law jurisdictions such as Quebec, though mixed jurisdictions like Quebec and Louisiana show some common law influence on how servitudes are recognized. Servitudes can arise by express agreement, by adverse possession, or by automatic operation of law. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/