PRESCRIPTION
prescription, n. 1. The act of establishing authoritative rules. Cf. PROSCRIPTION. 2. A rule so established. — Also termed (archaically) prescript. 3. The effect of the lapse of time in creating and destroying rights. [Cases: Limitation of Actions 1. C.J.S. Limitations of Actions §§ 2–4.] 4. The extinction of a title or right by failure to claim or exercise it over a long period. — Also termed negative prescription; extinctive prescription. 5. The acquisition of title to a thing (esp. an intangible thing such as the use of real property) by open and continuous possession over a statutory period. — Also termed positive prescription; acquisitive prescription. Cf. ADVERSE POSSESSION. See (for senses 3–5) PERIOD OF PRESCRIPTION . [Cases: Adverse Possession 1–95. C.J.S. Adverse Possession §§ 2–225, 263–299, 327–338; Conflict of Laws§ 76.] 6.Int’l law. The acquisition of a territory through a continuous and undisputed exercise of sovereignty over it. 7.Oil & gas. A Louisiana doctrine that extinguishes unused mineral servitudes after ten years if there is no effort to discover or produce on the land or the land pooled with it.
acquisitive prescription (<<schwa>>-kwiz-<<schwa>>-tiv). 1. PRESCRIPTION(5). 2. Civil law. A mode of acquiring ownership or other legal rights through possession for a specified period of time.
liberative prescription (lib-<<schwa>>-r<<schwa>>-tiv). Civil law. A bar to a lawsuit resulting from its untimely filing. La. Civ. Code art. 3447. • This term is essentially the civil-law equivalent of a statute of limitations. See STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS. [Cases: Limitation of Actions 1. C.J.S. Limitations of Actions §§ 2–4.]
prescription in a que estate (ah kee). [Law French “prescription in whose estate”] A claim of prescription based on the immemorial enjoyment of the right by the claimant and the former owners whose estate the claimant has succeeded to.
prescription of nonuse. Civil law. A mode of extinction of a real right other than ownership (such as a servitude) as a result of failure to exercise the right for a specified period of time.
[Blacks Law 8th]