While I'm thinking about it, what precisely do you mean by "land ownership"? Do you mean all interests in real property or just some of those rights? Property rights are often referred to as a bundle of sticks, with the right to occupy property being one "stick", the right to use property being another, the right to transfer bing another, etc. Thus, someone who owns the entire bundle can contract away some of the rights (the right of possession to a tenant, for example). In your hypothetical, would all rights in real property be exstinguished, or just some. It make a difference, as you can imagine.