ABSTRACT
When Gaius divided his treatment of the Roman civil law into the three categories of persons, things and actions, the law of property was with obligations part of the law relating to things. The modern civil law of property has been heavily influenced by the principles and categories invented by the ancient Roman jurists. The subject matter of the Roman law of things consisted of those things which were in patrimonio and capable of ownership by individuals. If ownership is an abstract concept, describing the legal relation of a person to a thing, possession on the other hand appears to be a straightforward description of a factual situation in the everyday physical world. The portions of the modern codes of civil law dealing with the acquisition of ownership bear a marked affinity to the discussions of the Roman jurists. Both Roman and Germanic law agreed that ownership could not pass from one person to another without a transfer of possession.
