Chapter Summary
In this chapter, we have considered those cases in which a person could acquire ownership without acquiring it from a previous owner. Of most importance of these, from the point of view of the modern Scots lawyer, were occupatio (in which a person acquired ownership of ownerless property by taking possession of it), accession (in which a person acquired ownership of property that had been attached to his or her property), specificatio (in which the manufacturer of a new thing made from another's materials acquired ownership), and commixtio and confusio (which both involved the creation of a co-ownership relationship between the owners of things that had been mixed together).
All of these have been received into modern law, although of course differing on point of detail. Two other modes of original acquisition existed, which have not been received into modern Scots law, namely the finding of treasure and usucapio. The latter of these, though, which allowed the acquisition of ownership through possession of the property, has its modern equivalent in the form of positive prescription.Further Reading
G.2.65-79
J.2.1pr-39; 2.6
D.41.1-10
C.7.26-35
W W Buckland, A Text-Book of Roman Law from Augustus to Justinian 3rd edn, revd P Stein (Cambridge University Press 1963) 207-28, 242-52
H Hausmaninger and R Gamauf, A Casebook on Roman Property Law (G A Sheets trans, Oxford University Press 2012) 124-204
E Metzger ed, A Companion to Justinian’s Institutes (Duckworth 1998) 55-65
J A C Thomas, Textbook of Roman Law (North-Holland 1976) 157-79
A Watson, The Law of Property in the Later Roman Republic (Oxford University Press 1968) 21-61, 62-77