The second branch of the threefold division of all of private law which Gaius employs in his Institutes is that of the law of 'things'.
He explains it as follows:
Inst.Gai.II.1 In the previous book we dealt with the law of persons. Now we turn to things [res]. [translation: Handouts]
The inspiration for this threefold classification need not detain us here, but it most likely had its origins in philosophy.
Suffice it to say that Gaius was not the first jurist to attempt to structure a branch of Roman private law. Attempts of this kind had already been made during the course of the late Republic, such as when the jurist Quintus Mucius Scaevola published a book in which he attempted to structure the law. Structure is important as it allows us to see logical connections between different areas of the law. It must be borne in mind, however, that our modern understanding of structure and categories is not necessarily that of the Romans. The Roman jurists had a very particular way of looking at structure, categories and definitions which was largely drawn from their education in Greek philosophy and the logic which drove it. Thus, although we might be tempted to reduce these Roman legal structures and categories to fit our modern understanding of structure and categories, this would be to project our own experiences onto the past without allowing it to speak for itself.The law of 'things' consisted of three definite sub-categories. In modern law, these would be termed the law of property, the law of obligations and the law of succession. To the Roman legal mind, these three branches of law were conceptually united by their involvement with 'things'. Again, even in this threefold subdivision of the law of 'things', the person-centred nature of Roman law is visible. The first branch deals with 'my things', the second with the interaction between 'my things' and those of others. The third branch of law deals with the distribution of 'my things' when I am no longer here. From this we can see that the individual, as we have seen in the previous chapter, is an important agent in Roman law.
3.1.
More on the topic The second branch of the threefold division of all of private law which Gaius employs in his Institutes is that of the law of 'things'.:
- Along with contracts, the other significant branch of the law of obligations is that of delicts, i.e., private wrongs for which redress was provided by civil law.
- Gaius and his Institutes
- LEGAL SCIENCE AND RHETORIC IN GAIUS' INSTITUTES
- As previously noted, the Romans considered the law of succession to be part of the law of things, since succession was construed as a mode of acquisition of rights over things in a mass (per universitatem).
- The law of obligations is one of the most significant contributions of Roman law to legal culture, illuminating the civil law tradition more than any other branch of Roman law.
- PRIVATE LAW AND PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW: LOCATING WOMEN
- Roman private law developed from the law of procedure, otherwise recognized as the law relating to actions.
- The law of things (res)
- The Roman law of things (ius rerum) or, in contemporary terms, ‘property’, covered a muchbroader field than that encompassed by the modern law of property.
- The shift from private law to criminal law
- The Neglect of the More Recent History of Private Law
- Identification of the 'Pure' Roman Private Law
- Chapter 3 The Private Law
- Private criminal law and public criminal law