An easement is an interest in land that is owned by another person and gives the easement holder or easement owner the right to use or control the other person’s land in some limited way—such as the right to drive across another person’s private property to access a public highway or other public road (an ingress-and-egress easement).

There are many different types of easements, depending on the nature of the use of the land—such light-and-air easements; mineral easements; timber easements; noise easements; and railroad easements—and how the easement was acquired—an express easement; an implied easement; a prescriptive easement; an easement by necessity; or an easement by estoppel, for example.

There are also negative easements that prohibit the owner of a property (the servient-estate) from doing something, such as building a home or structure that blocks the view or sunlight for an easement holder—often an adjoining property owner (the dominant estate).

Public utility companies (gas, electricity, telephone, water, sewer, cable, etc.) often have easements to place utility transmission, distribution, or power lines on private property and access them for installation, repair, and maintenance.

Laws regarding easements vary from state to state and may be located in a state’s court opinions (also known as its common law or case law) or in its statutes.

In New Mexico, easements are recognized as non-possessory rights to use another person's land for a specific purpose. Easements can be created in various ways, including express easements, which are granted by deed or written agreement; implied easements, which arise from circumstances suggesting the parties intended to create an easement; prescriptive easements, which are acquired through continuous and open use of property without permission for a period of time specified by statute; easements by necessity, which occur when landlocked property owners need access to a public road; and easements by estoppel, which can arise when a landowner gives another party assurance that an easement exists, and the other party relies on that assurance to their detriment. Negative easements, which restrict a property owner from certain actions that could affect another's property, are also recognized in New Mexico. Utility companies typically have statutory easements that allow them to install and maintain infrastructure on private property. The specifics of easement law in New Mexico can be found in state statutes, such as the New Mexico Statutes Annotated, and through case law developed by New Mexico courts.