4. If the usus of a flock or herd, as, for instance, of a flock of sheep, be given as a legacy, the person who has the usus cannot take the milk, the lambs, or the wool, for these are among the fruits. But he may certainly make use of the flock to manure his land.
5. If the right of habitatio is given to anyone, either as a legacy or in any other way, this does not seem a usus or a usufructus, but a right that stands as it were by itself. From a regard to what is useful, and conformably to an opinion of Marcellus, we have published a decision, by which we have permitted those who have this right of habitatio, not only themselves to inhabit the place over which the right extends, but also to let to others the right of inhabiting it.
6. Let if suffice to have said thus much concerning servitutiones, usufructus, usus and habitatio. We shall treat of inheritances and obligationes in their proper places. We have already briefly explained how things are acquired by the law of nations; let us now examine how they are acquired by the civil law.
VI. Title Through Possession.
By the civil law it was provided, that if anyone by purchase, gift, or any other legal means, had bona fide received a thing from a person who was not the owner, but whom he thought to be so, he should acquire this thing by use if he held it for one year, if it were moveable, wherever it might be, or for two years, if it were an immoveable, but this if it were in the solum Italicum; the object of this provision being to prevent the ownership of things remaining in uncertainty.
Such was the decision of the ancients, who thought the times we have mentioned sufficient for owners to search for their property, but we have come to a much better decision, from a wish to prevent owners being despoiled of their property too quickly, and to prevent the benefit of this mode of acquisition being confined to any particular locality.
We have, accordingly, published a constitutio providing that movables be acquired by a usus extending for three years, and immovables by the “possession of long time,” that is, ten years for persons present, and twenty years for persons absent; and that by these means, provided a just cause of possession precede, the ownership of things may be acquired, not only in Italy, but in every country subject to our empire.
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