Bernstein of Leigh v Skyviews & General Ltd [1978] 1 QB 479 is a case in English law

English law

English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countries and the United States except Louisiana...

 in which a plaintiff

Plaintiff

A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...

 attempted to sue for trespass

Trespass in English law

Trespass in English law is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to goods and trespass to land...

 when aerial photographs were taken of his property. The case established that a property owner does not have unqualified rights over the airspace

Airspace

Airspace means the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere....

above their land.

Judgment

Griffith J stated: "I can find no support in authority for the view that a landowner's rights in the air space above his property extend to an unlimited height." The case established that the rights of a land owner over his land extend only to a height necessary for the ordinary use and enjoyment of his land.

Hobbes Theorem

This case is a good example of the application of the Hobbes Theorem, which states that if parties could not negotiate to arrive at an efficient outcome, the role of the law is to allocate property rights in such a manner so as to achieve efficiency through that allocation.