Superficies

Superficies is a Latin legal term referring to anything which is placed upon and attached to the ground, and most commonly refers to a building erected on land owned by another. Superficies is a Latin legal term referring to anything which is placed upon and attached to the ground, and most commonly refers to a building erected on land owned by another. Under Roman law, ownership of a building was considered inseparable from ownership of the land beneath it. A person with the right to use the land for a superficies, known as a superficarius, enjoyed a right to use the superficies, bequeath it to his heirs and encumber it, despite not 'owning' it outright. The right was known as a Jus Superficiarium. Under the headline of Building Leases, a report on Real Property Law within the European Union describes separate statutory rights in rem called rights of superficie, bail à construction, building leases, or Erbbaurecht, which entitle to full ownership of buildings erected on (including above or below) foreign ground for long periods. The right of superficies is a real property right which enables its proprietor - the superficiary - to have or obtain for himself buildings, constructions or plants in, on or above an immovable thing owned by someone else (Article 5:101 (1) Dutch Civil Code). .. .. A right of superficies may in addition serve to obtain the ownership of pipes, cables and tubes under or above someone else's land. A new Civil Code of Romania defines Superficies as follows: the right to have or to erect a building on someone other's land, above or under ground of that land, on which the superficiary acquires a right of use (art. 693). Japanese law provides for a similar right, known as chijōken (地上権, lit. 'above-ground rights') in Japanese and officially translated as 'superficies'.