Dominium

Lat. [from dominus, lord or master.] In the civil and old English law. Ownership; property in the largest sense, including both the right of property and the right of possession or use. De aequirendo rerum dominio, (of acquiring the ownership of things) is the title of Bracton's second book; borrowed, doubtless, from the second book of Justinian's Institutes. Bracton employs also the plural dominia. Blackstone uses dominium as a synonyme of dominieum, in which he is sustained by Spelman.

2 Bl. Com. 105.

But see the next definition. The mere right of property, as distinguished from the possession or usufruct.

Dig. 41. 2. 17. 1.

Calv. Lex. Jur. The right which a lord had in the fee of his tenant. In this sense the word is very clearly distinguished by Bracton from dominieum, as in the following passage. Nihil habuit in dominico nisi nudum dominium, s. homagium tt servitium; (he had nothing in demesne except the naked property, that is, homage and service.) Bract. fol.

27.

Sovereignty or dominion. Dominium maris; the sovereignty of the sea. A lordship.

Towns. PL 20.

DoKXHxuM Di BxoTUH. Lat. In the civil law. Strict ownership; that which founded on strict law, as distinguished from equity.

1 Mackeld. Civ. Law, 267, 266, Kaufmann's note.

In feudal law. Right or proper ownership; the right of a superior or lord, as distinguished from that of his vassal or tenant. Id. ibid.

Butler's Co. Litt. Note 77, lib. 3.

The title or property which the sovereign in England is considered as pos* sessing in all the lands of the kingdom, they being holden either immediately or mediately of him as lord paramount. Prmdium domini regis est directum dominium, cujus nullus est author nisi Deus; the estate of the king is right ownership, of which none but God is the source.

Co. Litt. 1 b. 2 Bl. Com. 105.

Allodial property; that which is held of no superior. The phrase is used in this sense by Blackstone, who superadds the epithet absolutum, and makes absolutum et directum dominium to import the same with dominieum.

2 Bl. Com. 105.

Do MiNroM UTILE. Lat. In the civil law. Equitable or praetorian ownership; that which was founded on equity.

1 Mackeld.

Civ. Law, Kaufmann's note. In feudal law. Useful or beneficial ownership; the usufruct, or right to the use and profits of the soil, as distinguished from the dominium directum, (q. v.) or ownership of the soil itself; the right of a vassal or tenant.

2 Bl. Com. 105. Butler's Co. Litt. Note 77, lib. 3.

Mr. Spence supposes that the divided ownership of lands, expressed by the terms dominium directum and dominium utile, was known to the Roman law; and hence deduces a principal argument in favor of the Roman origin of the feudal system.

1 Spence's Chancery, 28 — 34.

But the use of these terms in the Roman law appears to have originated with the glossators, who erroneously applied the distinction between the act Umes directce and utiles to the contract of emphyteusis, (q. v.) 1 Mackeld.

Civ. Law, 268, Kaufmann's note.

See Heinecc. Elem. Jur. Civ. lib.

2, tit. 1, §g 337, 338.

Dominium directum st utile. L. Lat. The complete and absolute dominion in property; the union of the title and the exclusive use.

Story, J., 7 Cranc Ks B. 603.

Dominium eminsns. L. Lat. Eminent domtdn. Cooper's Justin.

Inst* Notes, *456, 457.