The category at once described the concept and also the tendency. As time went on, the tendency took on an independent life. In modern legal systems, though not in the Roman, property came to represent one of the rights of the individual against the state, perhaps originally because property management had come to rest in the freeholder and not in his lord, and the king was the lord of all. The use of property management, particularly property in land, is extensively regulated throughout the West. Neighbours injured by adjoining land uses may sue in nuisance in the Anglo-American countries.
Similar actions exist in the civil-law countries.
Throughout the West, landowners may agree to allow others to use their land in ways that would otherwise be actionable, and such agreements may be made to bind those to whom the land is conveyed. This occurs, for example, when land is acquired by government for construction of a highway or by a utility company for creation of a reservoir. Such expropriation may not be a voluntary exchange between the parties, but compensation for property value is commonly provided. Water and Sanitation Services, Water Treatment, Group 5 water treatment, WSSA water treatment, Water Services, Water Services.