[The_Hyphenator]

So, this is probably going to seem kind of odd, but I'm planning a run for my players where details of land ownership may come into play. The run centers around a kind of hippy commune (for lack of a better term), where a bunch of eco-minded metahumans have formed a village in the wilderness with a group of sasquatch. The community is right on the edge of Seattle territory and the Tir border, so technically ownership of this patch of land is in dispute between the UCAS and Tir; both claim that it belongs to them, and it's become a minor sticking point between the two countries. However, neither country is willing to take action to reinforce their claim for fear of causing an international incident, so as yet neither country has tried to claim imminent domain and take control of it.

My idea is that one of the megacorps would discover that the land holds some valuable natural resources (I was thinking an orichalcum deposit or something equally valuable), and, wanting to claim it for themselves, would hire mercenaries (not wanting to use their own forces and get connected to a sticky political situation, especially given Tir's rocky history with the megas) to abduct the head of the community, who would essentially have claim to the land via squatter's rights, and force him to sign over the land to the mega in question, and the players would be hired for a kind of Seven Samurai (Seven Street Samurai?) job where they have to protect the village and prevent the mercs from accomplishing their mission. Now, here are my questions regarding Sixth World law (and these may not have established answers, but I'd welcome any input):

1. How are contracts (and more specifically, deeds) executed and registered in 2075? Are they physical documents that need to be filed with the appropriate authorities in meatspace, or are they essentially PDFs that can be registered via the Matrix? If so, what kind of authentication/notarization is required?

2. Is a SIN required to own property, or are property rights essentially viewed the same way they are today, where possession is 9/10ths of the law?

3. Do the various North American counties recognize and honor property ownership if it is recognized by another nation? So, for example, if the property in question were registered with the UCAS, would Tir recognize that claim? And would registration with a particular country open up the door for that country to claim imminent domain? Or is nationality of a piece of land still determined separately?

Thanks in advance.

[SlowDeck]

2. A SIN is required to own property. That doesn't stop SINless from owning it anyway; they're just not legal owners and only get to keep it as long as they have enough firepower to keep away those interested and don't gain the attention of those with more firepower.

[Fizzygoo]

0. Seattle UCAS and TT do not share a border. Seattle UCAS is surrounded by Salish lands and Puget Sound. There's approximately 100 km of Salsih territory between Seattle and Tir (at their closest points).

1. I'd assume it's all kept digital but hardcopy can be requested (for a small printing fee).

2. As SlowDeck points out...a'yup, SIN required to own land. Where, by "own," one means to legally hold dominion over property and that dominion is recognized and honored by the local, state, and federal governments in which said property lies within the aforementioned governances' territory.

3. This question doesn't really have any bearing. Let's say there is a border dispute as you describe between two nations. "Both claim that it belongs to them" in which case both would not recognize deeds/titles for land in the disputed area that is given out by the opposing nation. Because the land is "disputed" between the governments they are actively not recognizing the sovereignty of the other government (or its citizens) in that land.  So, for example, Rancher Jill purchases a ranch in the disputed territory from the Seattle Metroplex. Seattle now recognizes her right to the land. Tir would not. Tir might just demand that she also purchases the deed to the land from them (paying for it twice), or they might sell the same land to an Tir citizen and then have that citizen go and try and get Jill to leave. This can lead to international incidents that start from the bottom up and, at least in the beginning, out of the governments controls.

With that, governments would be very careful about whether they actually decide to allow land to be used by the public in contested areas.

On the other hand, if the whole of the disputed territory is one small "hippy commune" both governments might be happy to just let it be and use it as a backdoor for their own needs/wants.

Anyway, that's my initial guesses as to how to answer those questions.

[Crimsondude]

1. How are contracts (and more specifically, deeds) executed and registered in 2075? Are they physical documents that need to be filed with the appropriate authorities in meatspace, or are they essentially PDFs that can be registered via the Matrix? If so, what kind of authentication/notarization is required?

I would say so, only because there's just something special in the eyes of the law and historically in Anglo-American jurisprudence when it comes to ownership of land.

2. Is a SIN required to own property, or are property rights essentially viewed the same way they are today, where possession is 9/10ths of the law?

It shouldn't be, but this is SR; so, of course it would be. And today, possession is 9/10ths of jack shit.

3. Do the various North American counties recognize and honor property ownership if it is recognized by another nation? So, for example, if the property in question were registered with the UCAS, would Tir recognize that claim? And would registration with a particular country open up the door for that country to claim imminent domain? Or is nationality of a piece of land still determined separately?

The other country would tend not to care one whit because it's not their sovereign land. A government can only exercise eminent domain on property over which it can exercise jurisdiction.

[prismite]

For what it's worth, it sounds like a pretty cool idea.

[Crimsondude]

Agreed.

The overall premise is perfectly reasonable. You're good to go.

[SlowDeck]

Crimsondude, quick clarification question...

When you say "has jurisdiction over," do you mean "holds as territory?"

[Crimsondude]

Generally, yes. My comment was in the broader scope of the government being able to exercise eminent domain over any kind of property.

[The_Hyphenator]

Thanks for all the feedback! Special thanks to Fizzygoo; the initial map file I was looking at was a bit on the small side, so it made it look like Seattle and Tir were right next to one another instead of having a big stretch of SSC territory in between. I've changed it to the Seattle/SSC border; in the long run it doesn't make much of a difference anyway.

[SlowDeck]

It's not actually that limited... It's complex to navigate the treaties and such, but pretty much, the U.S. and several other nations can exercise eminent domain on foreign soil for limited purposes (with the agreement of the government in question and using their own system of doing so).

Note that is actually the most limited way that U.S. jurisdiction extends onto foreign soil. U.S. taxation and law enforcement-related seizures of property are much more broad. The taxation in particular; the U.S. can levy taxes on property on foreign soil if the owner is an American citizen. In fact, the U.S. actually had to enter into a series of treaties related to that to help lessen the taxes its citizens owning foreign property were dealing with, as they were getting fully taxed by both the U.S. and the other nation. U.S. law enforcement seizure of property is more broad in that it isn't limited to U.S. citizens, but more limited in that the other government generally has to have a treaty with the U.S.

So, in general, the U.S. and probably UCAS would care very, very much about property not on their soil if it's owned by one of their citizens. So likely, they would recognize the property as being property in the territory of a foreign nation, but one over which they have some jurisdiction due to the owner being one of their citizens.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

I would also like to point out that in general - or rather, in canon - the borders of the Seattle Metroplex are pretty damn rock solid, since it's been around since the Treaty of Denver.  (Denver's had more border alterations than Seattle; any place with a positive number higher than '1' would.)

What might fit, however, is if the person bought adjoining property on both sides of the fence (in my mind, the Salish-Sidhe Council has Seattle fenced in) and now wants to have the fence moved so the property can be all on one side or the other.  (This has more-or-less actually happened IRL - the weird shape of Missouri in that one corner is the example of some rich dude basically saying 'I'll be damned if I own property in two different states - change the damn border!!')

[JBRocky]

Thanks for all the feedback! Special thanks to Fizzygoo; the initial map file I was looking at was a bit on the small side, so it made it look like Seattle and Tir were right next to one another instead of having a big stretch of SSC territory in between. I've changed it to the Seattle/SSC border; in the long run it doesn't make much of a difference anyway.

This actually might work better for you since if ember correctly the Tribe to the South of Seattle is the Sinsearch Elf Tribe.   Your idea talks about the Eco friendly Meta humans and guess who the Sinsearch are?   If you said the Hippy Eco friendly Elf tribe you are correct, so your entire plan fits really good right where you put it.