Property
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States · John Bouvier · 1839
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States
is the right and interest which a man has in lands and chattels.
6 Binn. 98; 17 Johns. 283; 14 East, 370; 11 East, 290, 518.
It is divided into real property, (q- Vv.) and personal property, (q- v.) Ali things are not the subject of property; the sea, the air and the like cannot be appropriated; every one may enjoy thei, but he has no exclusive right in them. When things are fulour own, or when all others are -e Xcluded from meddling with them, or from interfering about them; it is plain that no person besides the proprietor, who has this exclusive right, can have any claim either to use them, or to hinder him from disposing of them as he pleases; so that property, considered as an exclusive right to things, contains not only a right to use those things, but a right to dispose of them, either by exchanging them for other things, or by giving them away to any other person, without any consideration, or even throwing them away.
Rutherf. Inst. 20; Domat, liv. prél. tit. 8; Poth. Des Choses; 18 Vin. Ab. 63; 7 Com. Dig. 175; Com. Dig. Biens.