A method of acquiring or extinguishing legal rights through the efflux of time and the concurrent silence of the legal owner of that right.
Mostly a civil law term known in common law jurisdictions as "statute of limitations" or just "limitations".
When used in a real property context, the term refers to the acquisition of property rights, such as an easement, by long and continued use or enjoyment.
The required duration of continued use or enjoyment, before legal rights are enforceable, is usually written in a state’s law known as "statute of limitations."
Legal rights can expire through the efflux of time by prescription, aka limitations.
For example, British Columbia has a Limitation Act which states, amongst other limitation periods, and as of 2007, and at ¶3(2) {extract only}:
"After the expiration of 2 years after the date on which the right to do so arose a person may not bring any of the following actions:
- (except for sexual torts), damages in respect of injury to person or property, including economic loss arising from the injury, whether based on contract, tort or statutory duty;
- trespass to property;
- defamation;
- false imprisonment; (and)
- malicious prosecution...."