Concept des Biens en Droit

Introduction

• A good is not a thing, but a concept in law.
• It's a thing as perceived by property.
• A thing with a proprietor who can use it and forbid others.
• Goods group together corporeal and incorporeal things, with a proprietor.
• Property is an exclusive right over a thing.
• Goods circulate among individuals in society.

Things that are not goods

• Things that are not appropriable, such as common things.
  • Common things belong to everyone, and cannot be appropriated (e.g., seawater, rainwater, air).
  • Necessary for everyone and thus no one can claim ownership.
• Things outside the legal market.
  • They cannot be the subject of a valid contract.
  • These things are considered taboo.
• People and their parts (e.g., organs, blood)
  • They can be given or grafted, but cannot be sold.
• Graves, are protected against appropriation.
• Lost and abandoned things.
  • Lost things were once appropriated, now not.
  • Abandoned things have no owner.
  • The owner voluntarily ceases the appropriation of the things.
  • This can be retracted if someone else hasn't appropriated the thing before.
  • Wild animals are considered things without a master.
  • Hunters and fishermen (not in ponds) appropriate things without a master.
• Animals
  • Domesticated animals were considered goods in 1804 (movable).
  • Nowadays, French and international sensibilities have evolved and no longer accept the reification of animals.
  • Animals are considered a specific category, neither persons nor goods, but still subject to the regime of goods (Civil Code article 515-14).
  • This article causes considerable uncertainty.
  • Requirements are now imposed to regulate animal ownership (e.g., a certificate of commitment and knowledge).

Corporeal and Incorporeal Things: Distinction

• Corporeal things: tangible. All the material environment.
• Incorporeal things: intangible.
• Historically, property law focused on corporeal things.
• Example: a doctor's clientele.
  • Historically, they weren't considered a good.
  • Now, it is possible to sell a clientele through the sales of commercial assets, including their leasehold rights.

Rights

• Rights are incorporeal things.
• Rights are a legal relationship between a debtor and a creditor.
  • The relationship has an object: what the debtor must do for the creditor.
• Personal rights/credit/obligation
  • Most frequent.
  • A debtor owes a service to the creditor.
  • If the debtor does not fulfill it, then the creditor gets to use the debtor's assets.
  • A credit can be sold.
  • Personal and exercised against a person.
• Real rights
  • Rights on a thing.
  • Exercised against a thing.
  • Also a relationship between debtor and a creditor related to a thing.

Things: Distinction: Moveable and Immovable

• The division of goods.
• Immovable goods (such as land, buildings) are more protected than movable goods.
• In 1804, land was the most important good.
• Movable/immovable are in the Civil Code (article 516).
• Corporeal things are classified.
• Movable things are those that can be transported.
• Immovable things are fixed to the ground.
• The land is considered immovable.
• The soil (cadastral definition of the land) is immovable.
• Anything on the soil (even pebbles) is movable.
• Buildings are immovable in relation to the cadastre.
• The material terrain itself is composed of movable things.
• Changes of categories can happen.
  • Moveable things can become immovable and vice-versa (by destination, for example).

Immovable Things by Nature

• These things are not transportable.
• They are attached to the soil, and are immovable.
• Land, buildings (Civil Code article 518).
• Subsoil (Civil Code article 518).
• If the subsoil is a quarry, the stones extracted are movable, but the quarry is still immovable.
• Treasure (Civil Code article 716):
  • Hidden or buried, ownership cannot be justified, discovered by chance.
  • Ownership returns to the initial owner's heirs if traced definitively.
  • If someone digs on another's property and finds treasure, property belongs to the property owner.
  • If an independent gardener finds a treasure on a private property, the property is split between the finder and the owner of the property.
• Overhang (above the land).
  • The immovable nature extends to the land surface, subsoil, and overhang. Property of the soil includes its above and below ground.
• Buildings attached to the soil by foundations are immovable (e.g., attached, to a foundational system). Buildings placed on the soil are movable.
  • Example: a simple shed on the soil is considered movable because it is not attached by system of foundation, as opposed to a house or a construction.

Moveable Things by Nature

• Anything that is not immovable is movable.
• Movable means transportable.

Immovable Things by Destination

• Moveable things are transformed into immovable, due to practical issues of protection (they couldn't be sold).
• Requirement: the moveable and immovable object must belong to the same owner.
• Owners can change what is considered movable vs. immovable depending on their situation. But third-parties must respect their designations.
• Two common ways:
  • Things used to perform an exploitation
  • Things attached to the property permanently

Moveable Things by Anticipation

• This category is not foreseen by the Civil Code.
• Movable things are anticipated.
• Example: a person selling apples from an apple tree.
• Fruit on a tree is considered immovable (attached to the tree) but once the fruit falls, it's movable.

Rights: Moveable and Immovable

• Rights apply to things. A right is immovable when it applies to an immovable thing in nature.
• Example: ownership or usufruct.
• All other rights are movable.

Property: Principle

• Property is the right to enjoy and dispose of things (Civil Code Article 544).
  • Absolute right
  • Exclusive right
  • Permanent right
  • Means the property owner can use and manage the thing as they want. But there are boundaries.
• The owner's power is unlimited in its manifestations, but it must not harm others.
  • Enjoyment (materially, like using a thing)
  • Disposition (legally)
  • Transfer (gratuitously or for payment).
  • Temporarily entrusting the thing to others (e.g., loan, rental).
  • Constituting real rights on the thing (like usufructs).
  • Renouncing ownership.

Property and Possession

• Proof of ownership may be difficult.
• Possession signifies ownership because the person physically has it and behaves like the owner.
• Two cases:
  • Owner is also in possession.
  • Ownership and possession are in conflict (one claims ownership, the other just possession).

Expropriation

• A person can be forced to cede their property for public interest (article 545).
  • Requires a fair and prior compensation.

Insolvency

• Debtors' assets can be liquidated to pay creditors.

Revocation

• An action where the owner of a thing can claim it back if it has been taken illegally.

Acquisition and Proof of Ownership

• Possession can prove ownership.
  • Movable Goods: In movable goods cases, possession is often equal to ownership given that there's no formal ownership title.
  • Immovable Goods: In immovable goods cases, proof comes from deeds and formal acquisition records, like notarial acts.
• How a person becomes a legal owner of property:
  • Acquisition by contract.
  • Consensual transfer of ownership: Sale.
  • Consensual transfer of ownership: Gift.
  • Succession.
• Proof of ownership without a title: indirect proof.
• Examples of situations where the ownership is difficult to prove.

Collective Ownership (in general)

• Historically, collective ownership wasn't straightforward or widely recognized.
• Existing instances of collective ownership were typically disguised.
• Marital Property (community property).
• Ownership by a company or other legal entity.
• State or public entities ownership.

Collective Ownership (types)

• Communal property.
• Shared walls or boundaries (mitoyenneté).
• Multi-story buildings.
• Indivision.
• Companies (disguised collective ownership).
• Legal persons representing collective interests (state, public bodies).
• Shared maritime ownership.

Co-ownership

• Co-ownership of buildings, as regulated by French law.
• Private and collective interests.
• Management (e.g., general assembly, syndic).
• Regulations about co-ownership.

Indivision

• A situation where several people share ownership of a thing without it being divided.
• Origins from succession.
• Origins from common purchases.
• How indivision ends (by agreement or court order).
• How the indivision begins (accidentally or by will/agreement).
• Rights of the indivisaires.
• Ways to divide indivision assets.
• How division of the property happens (retroactively).
  • Some indivisions are regulated by the law (article 815 and following) for accidental indivisions.
  • Other indivisions are conventionnal ( article 1873 and following)
  • The time limit for indivisions regulated by agreement are 5 years max. Renewable.

Ce quiz explore le concept de bien en droit, en définissant ce qui constitue un bien et ce qui ne l'est pas. Il aborde également la distinction entre les biens appropriables et ceux qui ne peuvent pas être possédés. Testez vos connaissances sur la propriété et les implications juridiques des biens dans la société.