Then no acquisition would
ever become peremptory and secured, but all acquisition would only
be provisory and temporary. This is evident on the ground that there
are no historical records available to carry the investigation of a
title back to the first possessor and his act of acquisition. The
presumption upon which acquisition by usucapion is founded is,
therefore, not merely its conformity to right as allowed and just, but
also the presumption of its being right (praesumtio juris et de jure),
and its being assumed to be in accordance with compulsory laws
(suppositio legalis). Anyone who has neglected to embody his
possessory act in a documentary title has lost his claim to the
right of being possessor for the time; and the length of the period of
his neglecting to do so- which need not necessarily be particularly
defined- can be referred to only as establishing the certainty of this
neglect. And it would contradict the postulate of the juridically
practical reason to maintain that one hitherto unknown as a possessor,
and whose possessory activity has at least been interrupted, whether
by or without fault of his own, could always at any time re-acquire
a property; for this would be to make all ownership uncertain (dominia
rerum incerta facere).
But if he is a member of the commonwealth or civil union, the
state may maintain his possession for him vicariously, although it may
be interrupted as private possession; and in that case the actual
possessor will not be able to prove a title of acquisition even from a
first occupation, nor to found upon a title of usucapion.
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