Light and Air, RIGHTS TO.

Light and Air, RIGHTS TO. An owner of land has a right to the light and air which pass over it; he has also the right to obstruct the light and air by erecting walls and buildings. If my neighbour builds a house on the edge of my land, he does not thereby acquire any right against me; I may build on my land so as to darken his windows. But I may, by express or implied grant, vest in him the right which is called a Servitude or an Easement—the right to forbid the erection, on my land, of any building which obstructs his lights. Up to this point the Roman, Scotch, and English law are alike in principle. The English law (as amended by the Prescription Act of 1832) allows an easement of light to be acquired against a neighbour by twenty years' enjoyment, without any grant. In Scotland such rights are not acquired by lapse of time; unless a servitude has been created, an owner may at any time build so as to darken his neighbour's windows, provided he does not act wantonly, emulously, or so as to cause a nuisance. Rights to air generally go along with rights to light; and the right is confined to air coming through windows, &c. The English law does not recognise any general right to air, such, e.g., as the right to forbid buildings which prevent air from reaching a windmill. Roman law permitted an owner to acquire a servitude of prospect—i.e. the right to forbid buildings which shut out a fine view; but the English law regards this as a fanciful and inadmissible right. In the United States rights of view—i.e. rights to open windows and to forbid buildings which obstruct them—may be acquired by one owner against another; and in some states they may be acquired by uninterrupted enjoyment for twenty or fifteen years. See Roscoe's Digest of the Law of Light (Lond. 1881), and Stimson's American Statute Law.