Usucapio
A term of Roman law signifying the acquisition of full and complete ownership
(“Quiritary”) through undisputed possession for a prescribed period of
time (
Dig. xli. 3, 3). Only persons having
commercium (q.
v.) could exercise this right, and it did not, of course, apply to stolen property (
res furtivae), and certain other things were exempted by law from acquisition
through usucapio—e. g. property belonging to minors under guardianship, property
belonging to towns, etc. (See also
Pignus.) So
sweeping, however, was the right of usucapio that if a man took possession of a piece of land
or other property belonging to an inheritance, even though he knew that he had no title to it,
and held it unchallenged for a year, it became his in full legal ownership (
Gaius, ii. 54). See
Schirmer, Grundidee der
Usucapion (1855); Puchta,
Institutionen. 239, 240; and the
article
Dominium.
