70 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. 



Britain or in India (except in some few cases which in their 

 nature imply some (dominant) house or building or land to 

 which the right is attached) ; it is quite possible for an 

 individual to have a prescriptive right as such individual.* 

 It is not necessary then to pursue this classification further, 

 except to be sure that when a right is so attached, the record 

 of it makes it quite clear exactly where, what and of what 

 extent, is the house, farm, or estate, which is the dominant or 

 right-holding property. 



It need only be mentioned that personal rights may be 

 granted or become prescriptive to a person and his heirs for 

 ever, or may be (granted) for life or lives only. 



8. Forest Rights which are Undefined. 



Eeturning for. one moment to the prescriptive origin of 

 rights, one very important matter has to be noticed. Such 

 rights are nearly always undefined or indefinite indeed, it 

 is possible that some rights by the terms of a grant are also 

 left undefined ; but most commonly it is prescriptive rights 

 that are so. 



The custom is that the right-holder may graze " his cattle " 

 in forest A. (how many and of what kind, and at what season 

 is not stated) ; or that he may have power to build and repair 

 " his house " ; or he has " common of estovers " a right to 

 fuel but of what kind (brushwood or billets) and for what 

 purposes, does not expressly appear. 



In all systems of law there are rules for determining how 

 such undefined rights can either be brought formally to record 

 in a definite shape (e.g. the Indian Forest Act),t or at least 



* A brief note may be useful as to village rit/hfx in India : it cannot be said, 

 or can only be true in particular cases, that a village is in any sense a corpora- 

 tion, or that it, regarded as a single (artificial) person, can hold rights of 

 user or common ; nor can it in general be regarded as a single dominant estate 

 possessing rights. If (though not warranted by the Indian forest law) a right is 

 set down rn a public record as existing in favour of "village C." this merely 

 means that all inhabitants (or perhaps only all landholders) of village C., for the 

 time being, can exercise the right in question. 



f In all fully-constituted State forests in India, the law requires every right 

 claimed to be brought before a public officer appointed for that purpose and not 

 only recorded, but made as definite in number, extent, kind, etc., as circumstances 

 allow. 



