DOMINIUM (Lat.). Perfect and complete property or ownership, in a thing.
Plenum in re dominium,—plena in re potestas. This right is composed of three principal elements: 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, jus utendi tantum. consists in employing it for the purposes for which it, is fit, without destroying it, and which employ ment can therefore be repeated ; to enjoy a thilig, jus fruendi tantum consists in receiving the fruits Which it yields, quidquid. es re nascitur ; to dispose of a thing, jus abutendi, is to destroy it, or to trans fer it to another. Thus he who has the use of a horse may ride him, or put him in the plow to culti vate his own soil ; but he has no right to hire the horse to another and receive the fruits which he may produce in that way.
On the other hand, he who has the enjoyment of a thing is entitled to receive all the profits or rev enues which -may be derived from it.
lastly, he who has the right of disposing of a thing, jis abutendi, may sell it, or give' it away, etc., subject, however, to the rights of the or usufructuary, as the case may be.
three elements, usus, fructus, when united in the same person, constitute the dornini ; but they may be, and frequently are, separat ed, so that the right of disposing -of a thing -may be long to Primus; and the rights of using and enjoy ing to or the right of enjoying alone may belong to Secundus, and the right of using to Ter Mts. In that 'case, Primusi is always the' oWner • of but he is the naked owner, 'Inasmuch as for a certain time be is actually deprived of all the principal advantages that can be derived from it.
Secundus, if he has the use and enjoyment, jus utendi' et fruendi simul, is called the usufructuary, ususfructuarius ; if he has the enjoyment only jus fruendi tantum, be is the fructuarius ; and Tertius, who has the right of use, jus utendi tantum is call ed the usuary,--usicarius. But this dismemberment of the elements of the dominium is essentially tem porary; if no shorter period has been fixed for its duration, it terminates with the life of the usuary, fructuary, or usufructuary; for which reason the rights of use and usufruct are called personal serv itudes. Besides the separation of the elements of the dominium ,among different persons, there may also be a jus in re, or dismemberment, so far as real es tates 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 completely attached to the house that it can never be separated from it, ex cept by its entire extinction. This class of Jura in re is called prediai or real servitudes. To constitute this servitude, there must be two estates, belonging to different owners ; these estates are viewed in some measure as juridical persons, capable of acquiring rights and incurring obligations. The estate in fa vor of which the servitude exists is the creditor estate ; and the 'estate by which the 'servitude is tine,' the debtor-estate. See Hunter, Roman Law 231; EMINENT DOMAIN.