Possessio civilissima in Spanish and German Law: Protecting Possession between Fact and Fiction
Possessio civilissima in Spanish and German Law: Protecting Possession between Fact and Fiction
In German Law, possession is generally regarded as a question of fact, whereas property is a legally undefined bundle of rights and privileges combined with the right to exclude others. Nonetheless, the clear line between right and fact gets blurred if possession is grounded on fiction as in case of possessio civilissima. This chapter focuses on this special form of possession, comparing German with Spanish law. Possessing civilissime means to possess without corpus and animus. So once a testator dies, his heir becomes possessor independently from being in control of the testator’s tangible items. Possessio civilissima, it is argued, calls into question the strict distinction between property and possession.
Keywords: German law, Spanish law, possessio civilissima, Erbenbesitz, testator, Heir, le mort saisit le vif
Edinburgh Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.