Allodial Title

Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property (land, buildings and fixtures) that is independent of any superior landlord. Historically, allodial title was sometimes used to distinguish ownership of land without feudal duties from ownership by feudal tenure which restricted alienation and burdened land with the tenurial rights of a landholder's overlord or sovereign. Allodial title is related to the concept of land held 'in allodium', or land ownership by occupancy and defense of the land. Historically, much of land was uninhabited and could therefore be held 'in allodium'. In the modern world, true allodial title is only possible for countries. Although the word 'allodial' has been used in the context of private ownership in a few states of the United States, this ownership is still restricted by governmental authority.

Most property ownership in the common law world is fee simple. Land is "held of the Crown" in England and Wales and the Commonwealth realms. In the United States, land is subject to eminent domain by federal, state and local government, and subject to the imposition of taxes by state and/or local governments, and there is thus no true allodial land. Some states within the US (notably Nevada, and Texas) have provisions for considering land allodial under state law, but such land remains rare. The constitution of the state of Minnesota states, "All lands within the state are allodial and feudal tenures of every description with all their incidents are prohibited." Some Commonwealth realms (particularly Australia) recognize native title, a form of allodial title that does not originate from a Crown grant. Some land in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, known as udal land, is held in a manner akin to allodial land in that these titles are not subject to the ultimate ownership of the Crown.

In Scotland, allodial land is land that is held absolutely, i.e. without a superior or other hierarchical tenure. Effectively all land in Scotland is now allodial following the abolition of the feudal system, although the term is not widely used.

In France, while allodial title existed before the French Revolution, it was rare and limited to ecclesiastical properties and property that had fallen out of feudal ownership. After the French Revolution allodial title became the norm in France and other civil law countries that were under Napoleonic legal influences. Interestingly Quebec adopted a form of allodial title when it abolished feudalism in the mid-nineteenth century making the forms of ownership in Upper and Lower Canada remarkably similar in substance.

Property owned under allodial title is referred to as allodial land, allodium, or an allod. In the Domesday Book it is called alod.