Just Title as Justification for Acquisitive Prescription: Global Discussion and Roman Legal Roots

Abstract

There are statements in contemporary legal discussion that undermine the legitimacy of maintaining the institution of usucaption in specific legal orders. It is uncertain if there is any justification for acquisitive prescription at all. European law experience is also familiar with this discussion. The institution of usucaption is not a uniform concept – there are many variants in different countries. Are we really talking about one institution or different ones, depending on the existence of one prerequisite or another? One of the prerequisites for acquisitive prescription, not present in every legal system, is interesting - the prerequisite of ‘just cause of usucapion’. Polish law does not require such a prerequisite, for instance. The basic and unquestionable requirement of usucaption in the classical legal development of this institution, in Roman Law, is unquestionable. The first statements of such jurists as Trebatius, Sabinus and Cassius show us the first conceptualization of acquisitive prescription, in which the just cause of usucaption prerequisite is immediately present and affects the nature of this legal institution - without it, these jurists did not see the possibility of acquiring things by usucapio.