ABSTRACT
Looking retrospectively, the concept of private property did percolate from the Greek to the Roman jurisprudence and then to other parts of the world. The Roman jurisprudence made two categories of things: (i) Res mancipi (consisting of land, certain rights of user over land, slaves, cattle and horses), transfer of which was made through an elaborate public ceremony called mancipation and (ii) res nec nancipi (thing that could not be so transferred). In the Roman law, the concept of jus quiritium, (acquisition right) was the privilege only of a Roman, which was above the law of the land. He could perform a number of acts about these things on which he asserted such a jus. He was the dominus, the paterfamilias and the housemaster (head of the household). (Max 1925: 208–209). The Roman jurisprudence received the status of ‘corpus Juris civilis’ in the hands of Emperor Justinian and continued to be the law of the Roman Empire. It consisted of the Institutes (a student text book), Digest (selection from the jurists’ writings), Codex (that summarised imperial edicts) and the Novels. (Max 1925: 227228).
