In some cases, we do. I worked for a farmer who won an eminent domain action on the basis of a Dutch deed covenant. There’s a lot of crusty old law that protected the rights of landowners and others whose title predates the state or nation. In my boss’s case, his title predated both the state and country.

It worked in negative ways too. The Dutch setup a feudal system, but the state limited the ability of the landowner to collect rent in the 19th century. (Baltimore has a system like this too) In this case, the landlords abandoned the title, but many homeowners were in a legal limbo where they didn’t have a clean title.