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 ...

, () is a

legal action In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the part ...

by which the

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...

demands that the

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one juris ...

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 Possession may refer to: Law *Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance *Drug possession, a crime *Ownership *Pe ...

of the same thing, and is currently impeding the plaintiff's possession of the thing. (reprinted in 1991) The plaintiff could also institute an (a personal action) to punish the defendant. If the thing could not be recovered, the plaintiff could claim damages from the defendant with the aid of the (a personal action). With the aid of the (a personal action), the plaintiff could claim damages from the defendant. The term originated in

ancient Roman law Roman law is the 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 denoted ...

. It was derived from the , and therefore was available only to

Roman citizens Citizenship in ancient Rome () was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance. Citizenship in ancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, traditions, and cu ...

Specification of the thing

The function of ''rei vindicatio'' remains the same in most modern legal systems as it was in ancient Rome. However,

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 ...

was much more particular about the specification of the "thing". A plaintiff could not have won a case without specifying the thing in question. At a theoretical level, Roman

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

s identified three kinds of "thing": * ''Corpus unitum'' * ''Corpus coniunctum'' * ''Corpus ex distantibus'' was not a single thing, but a bundle of independent things, such as a herd of cattle. Cattle were so important in Roman society that Roman jurists developed the regulation on cattle on a full scale. ''Corpus ex distantibus'' was the most disputed of the three.

Greek influence on Roman legal thought

Two law schools in Rome, the

Sabinian school In ancient Rome, the Sabinian school was one of the two important schools of law during the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. The Sabinians took their name from Masurius Sabinus but later were known as ''Cassians'' after Sabinus' student, Cassius Long ...

and the

Proculian school The Proculeian or Pegasian school was one of the two most important schools of law in ancient Rome during the 1st and 2nd centuries. Origin The Proculeians originally took their name from the prominent jurist Proculus, but later came to often be ...

, remained influential from the late

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

throughout the classical period. Most modern

Romanist Romanist may refer to: * A person who studies the history of Rome * A historian or archaeologist who specialises in Ancient Rome * A person who is a student of the Romance languages * A Netherlandish painter painting in the Romanist style * Rom ...

s consider these schools to be influenced to some extent by

Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysic ...

. They say that the Sabinian school was the student of

Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed in nature itself. Of all the schools of ancient ...

, while the Proculian school followed

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Peripateticism The Peripatetic school ( ) was a philosophical school founded in 335 BC by Aristotle in the Lyceum in ancient Athens. It was an informal institution whose members conducted philosophical and scientific inquiries. The school fell into decline after ...

. Greek influence is especially evident in classical Roman thinking on accession and specification. Sabinians, following Stoicism, argued that in these areas '' hyle'' ‘substance’ supersedes ''

eidos Eidos may refer to: * Eidos (philosophy), a Greek term meaning "form" "essence", "type" or "species" * Eidos Interactive, a British video game publisher ** SCi Entertainment Group, its parent, which was briefly renamed Eidos Ltd. ** Eidos Hungary ...

'' ‘form’. Proculians countered that ''eidos'' is the decisive factor for a fate of a thing.

References

Roman law nl:Rei vindicatio {{Latin-legal-phrase-stub

Specification of the thing

Greek influence on Roman legal thought

See also

References