Altho pecuniary damages are paid to him, this is a limitation of his property rights.  Rights of way on property exist either by contract or by prescription permitting its public use.  Most important of all limitations is the right of taxation, by which society takes more or less of private incomes for purposes of which the individual owners may not approve.

The law enforces a multitude of private claims by some persons against others.  A variety of rights called easements or servitudes may attach to private property, modifying its exclusive use.  Leases for any period are a limitation of the owner’s control.  Both the holder of the lease and the owner of the property have certain rights before the law.  The lender of money secured by mortgage has a legally recognized and enforceable interest in the mortgaged wealth.  Property is left in trust for the benefit of persons or of institutions or of the public, and is administered by trustees who are strictly bound to execute the terms of their instructions.  Contracts of many sorts are entered into by owners, limiting their control in manifold ways, and the law enforces these contracts.  These all form a complex of equitable claims, which together equal in value one undivided property right, which in turn equals the value of the wealth.[4]

Sec. 7. #Limitations of bequest and inheritance#.  The term bequest implies a will, usually a written will in which the person, in anticipation of death, expresses his wishes as to the disposition of his property.  It is said sometimes that bequest is a “logical” result of private property, but the law does not treat it as such.  The right of bequest, or of gift at death, is limited in various ways in different countries.  In countries where hereditary aristocracies exist, primogeniture is in some cases required by law, in others so strongly favored by public opinion that it is practically always followed.  Custom limits bequests in England to members of the family, and wills given outside the family are rare, and are almost always broken in the courts.  John Stuart Mill contrasted this with the practice in America, frequent even in his day and still more frequent now, of rich men giving for public purposes.  In France the right of bequest outside the family is legally limited; only the share of one child can be willed away by the father, and the rest must be equally divided among the children.  Settlements and fidei commissa are limited in many countries, because of the recognized social evils resulting from the tying up of estates for generations.  Throughout the history of England, Parliament has given attention to the question of mortmain, which chiefly concerned the drifting of great estates into the hands of the church or of corporations, as the result of bequests by the pious.  In England, of late (and to a less extent in this country), the policy of permitting unlimited endowments to charitable institutions has been seriously questioned, and by legislation some of the old endowments have been diverted from their original purposes when these have ceased to be of social utility.  Inheritance, in contrast with bequest, usually means succession to the property of one who has died intestate, that is, has made no will.  The law of inheritance likewise varies greatly with time and place.