The Evolution of Studies on Limited Real Rights in Relation to Property in Roman Law (Republican, Classical and Imperial Period)

Abstract

The article examines the formation and development of studies on limited rights to another's property (rights to things belonging to other people) in ancient Roman law. The authors of the article analyze the Russian and foreign doctrines, as well as the legal heritage of ancient (archaic) law, the Institutiones and Digests, which partially contain works of classical Roman lawyers of the republican period, the principality era and the late Roman Empire surviving to this day. The authors discuss the formation of scientific theories justifying the construction of limited real rights to property. The article emphasizes that limited real rights in Roman law developed together with such complex socio-economic processes as the formation of small and large landed property and urbanization. Theories on limited real rights to property were influenced by civil law and praetorian law that had been forming as separate systems for a long time but then were unified. The scientific novelty of this article consists in the fact that the authors tried highlighting elements of the scientific theory developed by republican and classical lawyers and addressing such an important part of civil law as limited real rights to property. The authors proved the scientific relevance of books on civil law, whose fragments have survived to the present day and whose content can be analyzed in conformity with Justinian's codification. In this regard, they emphasized that Roman lawyers worked on such scientific issues as the content of limited real rights to property, ways of their formation, termination and protection.