Legal construct of usufruct in roman private law

Abstract

The institution of rights to other people’s property (limited proprietary rights) is familiar to the civilized systems of many states. It is manifested both in the codifications of countries in the continental law family and in statute and precedent law in countries of Anglo-Saxon law. One of the most popular rights in this category (along with superficies and emphyteusis) is limited use of other people’s real estate (servitude), pledge, and usufruct. By analyzing the sources of Roman private law (the Digest, the Institutes of Gaius), the study examines the classical usufruct model and its impact on the establishment of contemporary legislation on proprietary rights. It is concluded that the primary features of usufruct, among which are fixed-term (lifetime) limited use of another’s movable or immovable property with the possibility of its natural and civil benefits being extracted by a certain person responsible for preserving the economic purpose of the object, were formed in classical Roman law and later reflected in the civil legislation of European countries, Asian countries, Latin America, and others.