This word properly denotes a voluntary surrender of rights or claims; the act of divesting oneself of that which was previously claimed as one’s own, or renouncing. It In this sense it to the opposite of “appropriation.” But a meaning has been attached to the term, imported from its use in foreign jurisprudence, which makes it synonymous with the exercise of the power of eminent domain, i.e., the compulsory taking from a person, on compensation made, of his private property for the use of a railroad, canal, or other public work.
In French law. Expropriation is the compulsory realization of a debt by the creditor out of the lands of his debtor, or the usufruct thereof. When the debtor is co-tenant with others, it is necessary that a partition should first be made. It is confined, in the first place, to the lands (if any) that are in hypotheque, but afterwards extends to the lands not in hypotheque. Moreover, the debt must be of a liquidated amount Brown.