ABSTRACT
This chapter sheds light on global universe by spotlighting the legal doctrine associated with the Roman law concept of dos. In the earliest days of dos the property outcome flowed from status and the change in status. Roman law accomplished this shift from regulation by status to regulation by contract in a context in which the sovereign itself had an interest in the outcome. In America, property law doctrine did not crumble due to an attack from the outside. The Roman model was neither the English model nor the American model. The keystone to Rome's political and economic success was its families. The relationship between family and property is critical because throughout the empire society was stratified based on family and wealth. What is interesting, and perhaps surprising, is the manner in which Roman jurisprudence worked and reworked the concept of dos in a difficult environment in which the universes of personal, familial, and sovereign power intersected.
