Note 60 — THE ORIGIN OF PROPERTY IN LAND

Javolenus, in the Digest, 50, 16, 115: “Possessio ab agro juris proprietate distat; quidquid enim adprehendimus cujus proprietas ad nos non pertinet, hoc possessionem appellamus; possessio ergo usus, ager proprietas loci est.” Notice that this idea of property is found even in the expression ager publicus, which does not at all mean common land; it means the property of the state, the public domain. If Maurer and his German or French disciples had known Latin or Roman institutions a little better, they would never have identified the ager publicus with the allmend.