PROPERTY is derived, probably through the French language, from the Latin word Propriehis, which is used by Gains (ii. 89) as equivalent to ownership (dominiutn), and is opposed to posscssio. Pos szastosj The etymology of the word propridas (propriva) suggests the notion of a thing being a man's own, which general notion is contained in every definition of property. Blackstone (ii. 1) defines " the right of property " to be " that sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion of the right of any other individual in the universe." A foreign writer definca ownership or property to be "the right to deal with a corporeal thing according to a man's pleasure, and to the exclusion of all other persons." This definition excludes incorporeal things, which however are con sidered objects of property in our law, and were also considered as objects of property in the Roman law, under the general name of jura, or jura in re ; they were considered as detached parts of ownership, and so opposed to dominium, a word which represented the totality of the rights of ownership. (Savigny, ` Das Hecht des Besitzes,' 5th ed., p. 166.) This definition also describes property as consisting in a right, by which word right is meant "a le-gal power to operate on a thing, by which it is essentially distinguished from the mere possession of the thing, or the physical power to operate upon it. Consequently
such a right is not established by the possession of the thing ; and it is not lost, when the possession of the thing is lost. Such a right can also be enforced by him who possesses the right by an attic) in rent against every person who possesses the thing, or disputes his right to it." (Mackeldey,' Lehrbueh des heutigen Rom. Rechte; pp. 1-36.) This definition, which is characterized by a precision and accuracy which are altogether wanting in that of Blackstone, is hero adopted. By property, then, is here understood only that which the positive law of a country recognises as property, and for the protection or recovery of which it gives a remedy by legal forme against every person who Invades the property, or has the possession of it.
Austin observes e An Outline of a Course of Lectures on General Jurisprudence ') that "dominion, property, or ownership is a name liable to objection. For, first, it may import that the right in question is a right of unmeasured duration, as well as indicate the indefinite extent of the purposes to which the entitled person may turn the subject. Secondly, it often signifies property, with the meaning wherein property is distinguished from the right of possession. [Pos