In other words,
rightful acquisition depends upon the formality of the juridical act
of commutation or interchange between the possessor of the thing and
the acquirer of it, without its being required to ask how the former
came by it; because this would itself be an injury, on the ground
that: Quilibet praesumitur bonus. Now suppose it turned out that the
said possessor was not the real owner, I cannot admit that the real
owner is entitled to hold me directly responsible, or so entitled with
regard to any one who might be holding the thing. For I have myself
taken nothing away from him, when, for example, I bought his horse
according to the law (titulo empti venditi) when it was offered for
sale in the public market. The title of acquisition is therefore
unimpeachable on my side; and as buyer I am not bound, nor even have I
the right, to investigate the title of the seller; for this process of
investigation would have to go on in an ascending series ad infinitum.
Hence on such grounds I ought to be regarded, in virtue of a regular
and formal purchase, as not merely the putative, but the real owner of
the horse.
But against this position, there immediately start up the
following juridical principles. Any acquisition derived from one who
is not the owner of the thing in question is null and void.
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