Accessio (Roman Law)
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''Accessio'' is a concept from
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
property law Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land) and personal property. Property refers to legally protected claims to resources, such as land and personal property, including intellectual prope ...
for acquiring ownership of property (the accessory) which is ''merged'', or ''acceded to'', another piece of property (the principal). Generally, the owner of the principal, whatever it may be, also became the owner of the accessory. Its usage continues in modern times in legal systems around the world incorporating Roman property law, primarily civilian legal systems. ''Accessio'' was not a specific rule of original acquisition of property in itself; instead, it served as the principle underlying the modes of acquisition that had their own particular guidelines for determination of ownership.


Roman accession

''Accession'' might also be (from Latin ''accedere'', to go to, approach), in
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
, a method of acquiring
property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...
adopted from
Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...
, by which, in things that have a close connection with or dependence on one another, the property of the principal draws after it the property of the accessory, according to the principle, ''accessio cedet principali''. Accession may take place either in a natural way, such as the growth of
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
or the pregnancy of animals, or in an artificial way. The various methods may be classified as: * Land to land by accretion or
alluvion Alluvion, is a Roman law method of acquisition of heritable property (land). The typical cause is sediment (alluvium) deposited by a river. This sediment, legally termed ''the accessory, accreses'' (i.e., merges with) a piece of land, the principal ...
* Movables to land or fixtures * Movables to movables * Movables added to by the art or industry of man


Accession in relation to land

The general principle was that everything acceded to the land since the land was the principal.


Buildings (''inaedificatio'')

Ownership of the house was considered distinct from ownership of the materials used to make the house. Owners of the materials were permitted to vindicate the materials upon demolition of the house, but the demolition of the house was forbidden by the
Twelve Tables The Laws of the Twelve Tables () was the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. Formally promulgated in 449 BC, the Tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws.Crawford, M.H. 'Twelve Tables' in Simon Hornbl ...
. Where X built on X's land using Y's materials, X owned the house since it acceded to X's land. Y would be capable of laying ''one'' of two actions if X was in
good faith In human interactions, good faith () is a sincere intention to be fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. Some Latin phrases have lost their literal meaning over centuries, but that is not the case with , which i ...
(''bona fides'') in using Y's materials, but ''two'' actions if X was in bad faith (''mala fides''). These actions were (i) the ''
rei vindicatio In law, () is a legal action by which the plaintiff demands that the defendant return a thing that belongs to the plaintiff. It may be used only when the plaintiff owns the thing, and the defendant has wrongly claimed or assumed possession of ...
'' for the materials and (ii) the ''actio de tigno'', which would recoup twice the value of the materials. Additionally, Y would also have an action against a third party if that third party stole the materials. In ''A Text-Book of Roman Law from Augustus to Justinian'', W. W. Buckland discusses a third situation where X builds on Y's land using Z's materials. In such a situation, Buckland suggests that in relation to Y, X should be treated as though an XYX situation has occurred, and in relation to Z, as though an XXZ situation has occurred.


Plants and seeds

X's plants (''implantatio'') and seeds (''satio'') acceded irreversibly to Y's soil once they have taken root, but Y must pay expenses if X is in legal possession, since X will have the ''exceptio dolus malus'' against Y's ''rei vindicatio''.


Rivers and new islands

*
Alluvion Alluvion, is a Roman law method of acquisition of heritable property (land). The typical cause is sediment (alluvium) deposited by a river. This sediment, legally termed ''the accessory, accreses'' (i.e., merges with) a piece of land, the principal ...
* Avulsion


Accession in relation to movables

The accessory accedes to the principal. The debate is generally over which is the principal and which is the accessory. The principal owner owns regardless of good faith, bad faith, or consent. Possible tests that could be adopted in deciding this question include: * Economic value * Size * Physical identity * Relative non-
economic value In economics, economic value is a measure of the benefit provided by a goods, good or service (economics), service to an Agent (economics), economic agent, and value for money represents an assessment of whether financial or other resources are ...
in terms of aesthetic value or labor In Roman law, there was no consistency. Everything was decided on a
casuistic Casuistry ( ) is a process of reasoning that seeks to resolve Ethical dilemma, moral problems by extracting or extending abstract rules from a particular case, and reapplying those rules to new instances. This method occurs in applied ethics and ...
basis. The Physical Identity test was the dominant test, i.e., the principal is that which gives its name to the final product and the accessory is that which has its identity merged and lost in the identity of the other. However, there are a number of special cases with special, and rather idiosyncratic rules, which are as follows: * Writing (''scriptura'') and painting (''pictura'') * Threads and garments (''textura'') * Confusion of goods (''confusio'') and commixture (''commixtio'')


Modern law

''Accessio'' has continued relevance in present times, partly due to the adoption of Roman law principles by legal systems across Europe, Africa, Asia and South America, primarily civilian legal systems.


Domestic legal systems

Legal systems across the modern world continue to employ a form of ''accessio''. A full discussion of each legal system falls outside the scope of this article, but see specifically: South African property law, civilian property law,
Scots law Scots law () is the List of country legal systems, legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing Civil law (legal system), civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different histori ...
. Modern legal systems go further when describing accession, including all circumstances where property has been increased physically but the Roman law concept relates to merger of an accessory and principal alone. Further reading on contemporary usage of ''accesio'' in modern states can be found in (L. van Vliet, ‘Accession of Movables to Land’ (2002) 6 ''Edin LR'' 67).


See also

*
Accession (property law) Accession in property law is a mode of acquiring property that involves the addition of value to the property through labour or the addition of new materials. For example, a person who owns a property on a river delta also takes ownership of any ...
*
Quicquid plantatur solo, solo cedit ''Quicquid plantatur solo, solo cedit'' (Latin, "whatever is affixed to the soil belongs to the soil") is a legal Latin A number of Latin terms are used in law, legal terminology and legal maxims. This is a partial list of these terms, which a ...


References

* {{Italic title Roman law Latin legal terminology