Acquisition of Ownership Through Prescription (Usucaption)

Abstract

The article contains comparative analysis of acquisitive prescription, its legal and factual preconditions and consequences in Latvian law. The purpose of the acquisitive prescription is to remove legal uncertainty created by internal defects of the conditions of acquisition of the property inter vivos. However, the complex system of acquisitive prescription under Latvian law does not always achieve this goal. It seems that the system is overly complicated. The cases in which acquisitive prescription is the last resort for the claimant to ascertain his or her ownership of immovable property are leaving the question of ownership unsolved. Introduction of another, simplified alternative to the existing one could be helpful for the solution of numerous cases of failed attempts to prove ownership.