Origin Feudal times
In common law, the curtilage of a house or dwelling is the land immediately surrounding it, including any closely associated buildings and structures, but excluding any associated open fields beyond; in feudal times every castle with its dependent buildings was protected by a surrounding wall, and all the land within that wall was termed the curtilage. The term excludes any closely associated buildings, structures or divisions that contain the separate intimate activities of their own respective occupants, where those occupants are persons other than the residents of the house or dwelling with which the building is associated. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Origin Period Core PrincipleThe curtilage is the enclosed space of ground and buildings immediately surrounding a dwelling-house. 1 Classification
Doctrine Category Doctrine Category Origin Period
Origin Period (category) Connections
In Area Of Law
Entity-backed identity for the doctrine category value this doctrine already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a doctrine entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.
Entity-backed identity for the doctrine category value this doctrine already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a doctrine entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.
In Legal System
Source Curtilage (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Curtilage (Wikipedia)
Etymology
In feudal times every castle with its dependent buildings was protected by a surrounding wall, and all the land within the wall was termed the curtilage.
In common law
The enclosed space of ground and buildings immediately surrounding a dwelling-house.
In Legal System: Common Law, Wikipedia lead sentence
In common law, the curtilage of a house or dwelling is the land immediately surrounding it, including any closely associated buildings and structures,
View the Source2. Wikipedia: Curtilage
the land immediately surrounding a house or dwelling... underlying the concepts of search and seizure, burglary, trespassView the Source Frequently Asked Questions
How do courts decide whether an area is curtilage under the Fourth Amendment?
By four factors from United States v. Dunn (1987): proximity, enclosure, use, and steps to protect it from observation.
In United States v. Dunn (1987), the Court said that curtilage questions should be resolved with particular reference to four factors: the proximity of the area claimed to be curtilage to the home, whether the area is included within an enclosure surrounding the home, the nature of the uses to which the area is put, and the steps taken by the resident to protect the area from observation by people passing by.
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