Define possession and state its two constituent elements.

Possession is, in Salmond's words, the most basic relation between a person and a thing — de facto (in fact) physical control, as against ownership which is de jure (in right). Yet law guards possession with a jealousy approaching its protection of ownership itself: "possession is nine points of the law." Why should law protect a mere fact? The three classic reasons (the intellectual heart of the unit): Preservation of the peace: possessory protection substitutes courts for self-help — dispossess the possessor yourself and you invite violence; sue instead. Evidence of ownership: possession is the prima facie proof of title; protecting possession protects the usual evidentiary situation. Protection of personhood/expectation: the possessor's settled relation to the thing is itself an interest — Holmes: law takes the current configuration as its baseline, so the peace is kept when the person in control can invoke the courts instead of fists. Possession as a right in itself — Holmes's synthesis: American realism (Holmes) asked why law protects possession and answered functionally: to prevent violence. The law protects the possessor not because possession is morally like ownership, but because possession is usually the evidence of ownership and the alternative to protection is force. In Holmes's famous image, to gain possession a man must place himself in the position of the possessor and "subjugate" the…