Right to light

Right to light is a form of <a href="/facts/Easement/GqP5L1hU">easement</a> in <a href="/facts/English_law/FqYSDmGK">English law</a> that gives a long-standing owner of a building with windows a right to maintain an adequate level of <a href="/facts/Illumination_(lighting)/Gk54r8xE">illumination</a>. The right was traditionally known as the doctrine of "ancient lights". A right to light can also be granted expressly by <a href="/facts/Deed/UJl4lShS">deed</a>, or granted implicitly, for example under the rule in <a href="/facts/Wheeldon_v_Burrows/Qg14aVsS">Wheeldon v. Burrows</a> (1879).
In England, the rights to ancient lights are most usually acquired under the <a href="/facts/Prescription_Act_1832/yEJtePze">Prescription Act 1832</a>. 
In <a href="/facts/Law_of_the_United_States/qVcQjGCe">American common law</a> the doctrine died out during the 19th century, and is generally no longer recognized. <a href="/facts/Japanese_law/RstESS0t">Japanese law</a> provides for a comparable concept known as nisshōken (日照権, literally "right to sunshine").

Right to light open-in-new

Right to light