11.3 Acquisition, Continuation and Termination of Ownership

Acquisition — the two great classes (the Roman map, still the smartest grid): A. Original acquisition (ownership arises without a prior owner's title — new title, not derived): Occupation (occupatio) — taking possession of a thing owned by no one (res nullius): wild animals, abandoned things (derelictae); Accession (accessio) — the owner of the principal acquires the accessory: the landowner acquires the alluvial deposit (alluvio), the building built on his land (inaedificatio), the calf born of his cow (the fruit follows the principal); Specification (specificatio) — the maker of a new thing out of another's materials (wine from grapes, a cabinet from timber) acquires it if the transformation is complete, compensation following to the material's owner; Confusion and commixtion — inseparable mixing of goods (grain heaped together, metals melted): co-ownership or acquisition by the principal owner according to intention and separability; Prescription (adverse possession) — open, continuous, hostile possession for the limitation period matures into title (11.4 below); Law's direct grant — allocation of State land, vesting statutes, nationalisation, discovery of treasure under statutory rules. B. Derivative acquisition (ownership derived from a prior owner's title — the chain of title): Transfer inter vivos — sale, gift, exchange — the acquirer steps into the transferor's shoes (nemo plus juris ad alium transferre potest quam ipse habet — no one transfers more…