Acquisition and reclamation of wastelandwith rule of capture in common law of the United States: a comparative study

Means of possession are specified in different legal systems; such means are considered very similar to each other in a holistic perspective. One of the means of possession, as referred to in the legal system of Iran in the first paragraph of Article 140 of the Civil Code, is acquisition of unclaimed property and reclamation of wasteland which, in comparison with Common law of the United States of America, is very similar to the rule of capture. In this study, the rule of capture in the common-law and acquisition in the Iranian legal system has been discussed; similarities and differences between these two terms have been examined and, at the end, it has been concluded that these two terms, despite their many similarities, do not coincide exactly with each other and are significantly different. The research method used is descriptive-analytical and the data were collected through scientific-library method.