DOMINIUM (Lat.). Perfect and com plete property or ownership in a thing.
Plenum in re dominium,—plena in re potestas. This right is composed of three principal elements, viz.: the right to use, the right to enjoy, and the right to dispose of the thing, to the exclusion of every other person. To use a thing, fee utendi tan tune, consists in employing it for the purposes for which it is fit, without destroying it, and which employment can therefore be repeated; to enjoy a thing, jus fruendi tantem, consists in receiving the fruits which it yields, whether natural or civil, quid quid ex re naseitur; to dispose of a thing, fits abu tendi, is to destroy it, or to transfer it to another. Thus, he who has the use of a horse may ride him, or put him in the plough to cultivate his own soil; but he has no right to hire the horse to another sad receive the civil fruits which be may produce in that way.
On the other band, he who has the enjoyment of a thing is entitled to receive all the profits or revenues which may be derived from it, either from natural or civil fruits.
And, lastly, he who has the right of disposing of a thing, fee abutendi, may sell it, or give it away, etc., subject, however, to the rights of the usuary or usufructuary, as the ease may be.
These three elements, Una, fructu8, abuses, when united in the same person, constitute the daminium ; but they may be, and frequently are, separated: so that the right of disposing of a thing may belong to Primus, and the rights of using and enjoying to Secundus, or the right of enjoying alone may be long to Secunclus, and the right of using to reran& In that ease, Primus is always the owner of the thing, but he is the naked owner, inasmuch as for a certain time he is actually deprived of all the principal advantages that can be derived from it.
SecuncluB, if he has the use and enjoyment, jus utendi et fruendi simul, is called the usufructuary, tuma-fructuariva ; if he has the enjoyment only, fee fruendi tantum, he is the frumuaries ; and Ter ties who has the right of use, pm utendi tantum, is called the usuary,—usuarfue. 13ut this dismember ment of the elements of the domiuium is essentially temporary : if no shorter period has been fixed for its duration, it terminates with the life of the usuary, fruetuary, or usufructuary; for which rea son the rights of use and usufruct are called per sonal servitudes. Besides the separation of the elements of the &minium among different persons, there may also be kilo in re, or dismemberment, so far as real estates are concerned, in favor of other estates. Thus, a right of way over my land may exist in favor of your house; this right is so com pletely attached to the house that it can never be separated from it, except by its entire extinction. This class of Jura in re is called predial or real servitudes. To constitute this servitude, there must be two estates belonging to different owners; these estates are viewed in some measure as juri dical persons, capable of acquiring rights and in curring obligations. The estate in favor of which the servitude exists is the creditor-estate; and the estate by which the servitude is due, the debtor estate. 2 Mariade, 343 et seq.