Accessio (Roman Law)

''Accessio'' is a concept from Ancient Roman property law that decided ownership of property (the accessory) which is ''merged'', or ''acceded to'', another piece of property (the principal). In general the owner of the principal thing, whichever it is, became the owner of the ''acceded'' thing also. Its usage continues in modern times in legal systems around the world employing Roman property law, primarily civilian legal systems.

''Accessio'' was not a specific rule of original acquisition of property in itself, instead it served as the principle underlying the modes of acquisition that had their own particular guidelines for determination of ownership.

Accessio in Roman Law

The most undisputed kind of ''accessio'' arises from the union of a thing with the ground; and when the union between the ground and the thing is complete, the thing belongs to whoever owns the ground. Thus if a someone builds on ground that someone else owns, the building belongs to the owner of the ground, unless it is a building of a moveable nature, as a tent; for the rule of law is "''superficies solo cedit''." A tree belonging to one person, if planted in the ground of another person, belongs to the owner of the ground as soon as it has taken root. The same rule applies to seeds and plants.

If someone wrote on the papyrus (''chartulae'') or parchment (''membranae'') of another, the material was considered the principal, and of course the writing belonged to the owner of the paper or parchment. If a person painted a picture on someone else's wood (''tabula'') or whatever the materials might be, the painting was considered to be the principal (''tabula picturae cedit''). The principle which determined the acquisition of a new property by ''accessio'' was this—the intimate and inseparable union of the accessory with the principal. Accordingly, there might be ''accessio'' by pure accident without the intervention of any rational agent. If a piece of land was torn away by a stream from someone's land and attached to the land of another, it became the property of the person to whose land it was attached after it was firmly attached to it, but not before. This should not be confused with the case of ''alluvion''.

The person who lost their property by ''accessio'' had as a general rule a right to be indemnified for their loss by the person who acquired the new property. The exceptions were cases of ''mala fides''.

The term ''accessio'' is also applied to things which are the products of other things, and not added to them externally as in the case just mentioned. Every ''accessio'' of this kind belongs to the owner of the principal thing; the produce of an animal, a field or a tree belong to the owner. In some cases someone might have a right to the produce ('' fructus'') of a thing, though the thing belongs to another ('' usufructus'').

The term ''accessiones'' was also applied to those who were sureties or bound for others as '' fidejussores'' ('' confusio'').

Accessio in the Modern World

''Accessio'' has continued relevance in present times, partly due to the adoption of Roman law principles by legal systems across Europe, Africa and North America, primarily civilian legal systems.

Domestic Legal Systems

Legal systems across the modern world continue to employ a form of ''accessio''. A full discussion of each legal system is outwith the discussion of this article but see: South African property law, civilian property law, Scots Law, Accession (Scots law), French law. Modern legal systems go further when describing accession, including all circumstances where property has been increased physically but the Roman law concept relates to merger of an accessory and principal alone. Further reading on contemporary usage of ''Accesio'' in modern states can be found in (L. van Vliet, ‘Accession of Movables to Land’ (2002) 6 ''Edin LR'' 67).

See also

*Accession (property law)
*Quicquid plantatur solo, solo cedit

References

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Roman law
Latin legal terminology