Understanding Property Ownership: Rights, Limitations, and Modern Applications

Posted on Nov 12, 2024 in Law & Jurisprudence

Domain or Property: A Comprehensive Overview

Concept of Property

Article 582 defines property as the real right of a corporeal thing to enjoy and dispose of it arbitrarily, without violating the law or the rights of others.

Critiques of Article 582

  • Indicates only one characteristic of property, the accuracy of which is questionable.
  • Leaves out essential characteristics such as exclusivity and perpetuity.

Planiol and Ripert offer another legal concept: a thing subjected perpetually and exclusively to a person’s action and will.

Classic Features of Ownership Rights

Absolute (Generality)

The owner can exercise all possible authority over the thing, including the power to use, enjoy, and dispose of it without impediment. Modern legal thought replaces the absolute character with generality, allowing the owner to leverage all profits the thing can provide, even with other real rights existing over it.

Exclusive and Exclusionary

Exclusive because it offers a unique title, and exclusionary because it entitles the holder to prevent others from intruding upon their right.

Perpetual

Not subject to time limitations and lasts as long as the thing exists, independent of its exercise.

Purpose of Property Law

Does property apply to intangible things? While Article 582 defines property in terms of tangible things, Article 583 suggests the concept of property extends to intangible things. While most authors argue that property rights exist only over tangible property, this view has been criticized as the “reification of property rights.”

The Supreme Court has worked to reconcile common law rules with Article 19 No. 24 of the CPR, recognizing the above.

Modern Features of Ownership

Abstract

Ownership has a distinct and independent existence from the powers it grants. An owner may be deprived of one or more powers and still retain ownership.

Elastic

The power of ownership can be reduced by other real rights and expand again when those rights cease to exist.

Content of Domain

Active Content (Powers of the Owner)

Faculty of Use

Applies to all services the thing can provide without consuming its fruits. Often accompanied by the faculty of enjoyment.

Faculty of Enjoyment

Enables the owner to appropriate the fruits the thing produces.

Faculty of Disposal
  • Material: Enables physical destruction, transformation, or degradation of the thing. This faculty distinguishes domain from other property rights.
  • Legal: Power to detach the right from the thing, either by death or inter vivos transfer (waiver or transfer).

Validity of Clauses Limiting Domain Power

Legal Exceptions

  • Art. 819: Rights of use and habitation are non-transferable.
  • Art. 1464 No. 2 & Art. 334: Right to food.
  • Art. 1884: Agreements of redemption.

Judicial Exceptions

Prohibitions on alienating or encumbering certain assets and bans on specific acts or contracts.

Conventional Exceptions

Possibility of agreeing to non-alienation clauses. Some cases are expressly validated by law, others are expressly denied, and in some cases, the law is silent.

Civil Code provisions that deny value: Articles 1126 (testamentary allocations), 1964 (lease contracts), 2031 (census), and 2415 (mortgage).

Civil Code provisions that give value: Articles 751 No. 1 (trust property), 1432 (donations), and 793 (usufruct).

Cases Where the Civil Code is Silent

Three doctrines exist:

  1. Validity of such clauses:
    1. Private law allows anything not prohibited.
    2. Legislative prohibitions in specific cases imply freedom otherwise.
    3. If owners can dispose of all powers, they can dispose of individual powers like disposal.
    4. Regulation CBR Art. 53 allows registration of any impediment.
  2. Denial of validity:
    1. Free movement of goods is a public order rule.
    2. Specific authorizations imply no general authorization.
  3. Relative validity:
    1. Valid if not lifelong, not excessively long, and justified by legitimate interest.
    2. Art. 1126 suggests validity if alienation involves third-party interests.

Content of Domain: Liabilities

Limitations and Restrictions on Ownership

  • Obligations Propter Rem: Borne by the owner simply for being the owner.
  • Real Charges: Periodic or intermittent charges arising from law or contract, incumbent upon the owner, such as land tax, paving rights, or common expenses.
  • Liability for Property: Art. 2326 (wild animals) and Art. 2323 (building ruin).