User blog:Arathorstories/Azeroth's Law: Property, Part 1

Time for a really contentious issue in law RP and RP in general: Property, including who owns what house. For our purposes, property law bridges both civil and criminal matters - and it did historically as well, since the line between those two has always been a bit blurry when it comes to some of the torts. This is the first part of the property law entries because it's a very big field covering everything from civil suits for conversion and trespass to criminal actions for smuggling and theft.

In this first part, we look at a basic concept and two offences: Land ownership, Trespassing, and the basic idea of Theft.

Get Out Of My House
This is the single biggest issue of contention when it comes to property in-game. People will claim such-and-such a spot as 'their's' and expect that to be universally obeyed. This is, frankly, absurd. It won't be, because the claim is of no importance at all. Popular spots for this include various inns, Cutthroat Alley, unfortunately Stromgarde City, and anywhere a criminal guild is found.

There are two elements to consider. The most important one is OOC, and it's also the simplest: Talk it over OOC if you want to use a space another group is using, and try and come to a reasonable agreement. The one I usually support is a simple 'first come, first serve' per-scene, meaning that if someone else is in 'your spot' when you get there, respect them and either do your own thing without bothering them or come back later rather than starting a lot of OOC bickering. Note the distinction however between OOC bickering and basic inquiries of 'Hi, do you mind if we use this spot for a while?', which are fine and can often lead to mutual collaboration.

The principle to remember here is that it's a small game world with a big population, and treading on people really isn't conducive to a healthy community. Just demanding that people 'get out of my house' OOC (or IC, in many circumstances) doesn't work and raises peoples hackles instead.

On the IC front, let's take a very brief look at what you need for it to be 'your' house legally: If you don't have #1, you don't own it. If you don't have #2 or #3, you don't have occupier's rights, such as to prevent entry by others (except where such entry is criminal. There is a general presumption that even guests who don't fall into #2 or #3 (e.g. short-term visitor, handyman) can act to prevent a criminal entry as it's in the public interest) or order those who don't fall into any of the categories to leave.
 * Title to the location. This is usually in the form of a deed or some other grant, and simply means you own it; or
 * Permission by the title-holder, including in the form of rent or free-stay arrangements, to be present and resident (or employed for the long-term maintenance or security of a building); or
 * Long-term occupancy may provide a common law right of occupation depending on how cases go with the Stormwind judicial system.

So if you want to own a building or piece of land, whether it's represented in-game or not, you need to have one of the above three to have any actual claim.

Trespass
Related to the above is the offence - and tort - of trespass. Put simply, trespass is when you're on land you don't have the right to be on - a good example is someone else's house without their permission and without mitigating circumstance.

Just being there usually isn't enough. You need to either know the land is owned (or occupied. Squatters can, in some circumstances, sue for trespass) or refuse to leave it when asked for it to qualify as an offence. So cutting through a piece of uncultivated land owned by someone will rarely qualify as trespass.

Some elements to consider for trespass:
 * The land in question must be owned. Public land can never be trespassed on. However, as the King (or State) owns everything, this isn't as much of a distinction as you'd think without common law teeth backing it.
 * There must be either intent or recklessness. The trespasser must either know the land is owned, or be reckless to that - in this case, being so drunk you don't know where you are would qualify.
 * Usually, mere presence is not enough even with intent, unless apprehended by the Guard at that stage. Quietly leaving on request or upon discovering the land is owned - or at the first practical opportunity thereafter - can and often will negate the offence. Put simply, they must intend to be there without permission, and an action that shows the contrary intent diminishes liability.

Theft
Theft is actually a broad category of crimes with different names in different jurisdictions, along with a number of torts. Things like larceny, grand theft equine, conversion, and deprivation of property all qualify.

Here's a basic set of principles to consider for any theft matter: That's it for this very basic overview.
 * A person cannot steal something if he genuinely intended to return it, or genuinely did not know it was owned by any person, unless the legislation or case law should specificy that recklessness is a valid mens rea.
 * A person cannot steal something if he does not take that object or otherwise move it away from its owner. Where this gets tricky traditionally is the definition of 'moving' (or 'carrying away') an object - does just lifting it up and putting it back down count? Usually not.
 * A person cannot steal something to which he is rightfully entitled. For instance, if I own a hammer and Tim the Thief has it in his possession, it is not theft if I take the hammer back when he's not looking.
 * However, a person can steal something which the possessor is not rightfully entitled to have. If John steals my hammer from Tim, both Tim and John are thieves and could be prosecuted. Tim can be prosecuted for the theft from me, and John for the theft from Tim!
 * Possession is a must for the charges. If someone merely intends to steal something, but fate conspires to prevent him from ever actually taking and carrying away an object into his possession, there is no crime - but there is probably an attempt charge lurking in the near future.

As usual, I can be contacted in the comments section, as Everen on Alliance, or by email. Do not take this post as actual legal advice.