Our thanks to John T in the UK for this
message:
Hello Don, In the UK if someone uses land and bars others from using it he becomes the owner of that land by "adverse possession". I know because I used the process about 11 years ago. There are probably similar judges rulings in the US. [YES. Don]
A qualification to what I have stated is that if the land was previously owned by a Elemosenary Charity the time is 20 years. If owned by the state it is 50 years. [In Nevada, it seems to be only 5 years according to the last-linked article]
American law is based on English common law, from which this
notion of adverse possession derives. Constitutional lawyers use common law to
argue cases.
More relevant to the Bundys is homesteading law and the
stock raising homesteading law:
