Owners Beware: Themes and Variations in Property Law

Abstract

Within the last twenty years a series of rulings in various Commonwealth countries has had the effect of limiting the once supreme right of ownership. The Canadian Veinot case was the most recent. The present study attempts to place this case against the background of Roman property law. A historical analysis of the evolution of the Roman law reveals a concept that has not been as stable as one would think. We find that ownership as we would define
it today has not always existed. Instead, there was an early form that can hardly be distinguished from possession, followed by various other forms. Our present concept can, therefore, be seen not as an immutable institution but as another such variation upon a theme. Moreover, we may be at the threshold of a new form.