CLASSIFICATION OF PROPERTY

There are various ways in which Roman law classified property. We have seen that, in the first place, Roman law distinguished between corporeal and incorporeal property.

Property was also classified in other ways.

In classical Roman law, a distinction was also made between res mancipi and res nec mancipi, the former being property requiring particular formal methods of transfer (see Chapter 5) until the distinction was abolished by Justinian. Property falling into the category of res nec mancipi could be transferred or (in the case of incorporeal property) created informally. The category of res mancipi was made up of slaves, certain beasts of burden (oxen, horses, asses and mules), Italic land and rustic praedial servitudes (see below) over such land. The origin of the distinction is unclear, but it has been suggested that these types of property were marked out in the early period as important in agriculture. By the late Republic, in any case, the list became fixed, and beasts of burden (such as camels) which became known to the Romans later did not enter the list of res mancipi.