[xorcist]

It's always entertaining to hear such absurditites presented with a straight face. An alien studying our race would struggle to understand who would even care about this.

The obvious solution is, of course, to just allow people to pass on other's land. Maybe with some provisionings so ensure it isn't abused. You can already beathe the air legally, why not walk the ground legally?

Land "ownership" isn't really ownership in the physical sense anyway. You are allowed a certain set of rights, but you can't even mine your ground without permission, or dump toxic waste, or forbid planes to pass over. You could easily just decide to let people over on foot, too. It wouldn't take anything away from land rights.

[rcxdude]

It's a thing in other countries. Scotland has the 'right to roam' which basically allows anyone responsible access to private land by most non-motorised means. It obviously doesn't extend to people's houses and gardens, and there's also exclusions for fields with crops (but not livestock) and hunting/fishing. But you can hike, bike, horse-ride, canoe, or camp on someone else's land so long as you aren't causing any mess or trouble.

[em-bee]

germany has that. effectively you have to provide a path or road where your neighbor can pass through your property, if that is the only way to reach the property. you can only choose where to put the road, but not to not allow someone to pass.

[kiney]

"Notwegerecht" is very rare in reality, AND the user has to pay. In general in germamy it is historically much more common that these situations don't arise because when land gets sold a prooer deal for regular "Wegerecht" is made. But it does happen.

[kiney]

also in this particular case probably neither would have mattered. Seems like this area is _owned_ by the farm but basically unused. Most (all?) german state consider this to be "freie Landschaft" (free landscape) [this includes unused farmland, woods etc.] which you can cross by foot whenever you want.

[em-bee]

a proper deal is usually made, because you know that you won't get around giving access anyways, since the law requires it.

[PetriCasserole]

Also, do you own something if it can be forcibly taken away when you don't pay an annual fee? Rent or tax, call it what you want, the outcome is the same if you don't pay.