On 11/9/05, Mark Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
There certainly are trespass laws in Britain. I'm currently taking a
law
course as a requirement for my master's degree at Duquesne University
and we just covered trespass. (I just got back from an exam on that
very
subject not 20 minutes ago!) American trespass law is based on English
common law. I'd wager Canadian trespass law is also, so perhaps Knarf
can fill us in some more. Anyway, property rights in Britain, including
trespass, are at least partly based on the writings of John
Locke.<snip>
I'm no expert, but:
In England, trespass is a civil wrong, and an action on trespass is a
private matter to be pleaded in the civil courts. There are no
"trespass laws", as the law has evolved over the years in common law,
ie: it has evolved through interpretation by judges.
In Canada, and likely the US and most other Common Law jurisdictions,
trespass has been codified, and is now a quasi-criminal matter. Here,
each province has it's own Trespass Act, all of which are more or less
identical (except Quebec, which as Adam says, has it's own Civil Law
system, more or less based on the Napoleonic Code). Those Trespass
Acts basically say that a landowner or their agents can ask one to
leave private property, and if the interloper doesn't leave, the
police can be summoned and the person can be issued a summons and
fined. In addition, if that person is given a Trespass Notice (as
defined by the Act), they may not return, and are subject to sanction
if they do. If the person does not leave when requested, they can be
arrested.
"No trespassing" signs can be posted on private property, in which
case anyone found on that property can be summonsed, fined and
arrested, no prior notice required.
cheers,
frank
--
"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
