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The Roman institutional writers make the Law of Thnigs the second great division of the Jus Privatum. Under this general head they include: (1) Ownership, and Modes of Acquisition; (2) Proprietary rights less than ownership, such as Servitudes; (3) Inheritance, Testamentary and Intestate; (4) Obligations arising from Contract and from Debt. What the common element is which makes these various topics all referable to one great branch of law is not at once apparent. Probably it is ownership. 'The true point of contact between the various res seems in reality to be the fact that whoever has a res is actually or prospectively so much the better off.' Accordingly Grotius defines 'things' as 'whatever, is external to man and in any way useful to man'. This, however, is not wide enough, for 'thing' in its legal significance includes not merely material things but also rights over material things (jura in rem) and rights to services (jura in personam). Voet's definition of res as 'everything of which the Courts take cognizance' is perhaps to be preferred. It is, however, unprofitable to labour to define what is scarcely definable.

In the following pages we shall follow modern practice and treat as separate and principal divisions of the Law:—the Law of Property, the Law of Obligations, and the Law of Succession. The subject of this Book is the Law of Property.