Conclusiones ex tit. D. de rei vindicatione

Large decorative drop cap VVindication is an action in rem an action against a thing, through which someone claims their property from the possession of another into their own ownership.

2. The learned doctors rightly deduce the etymology of the word from vindicando liberating/asserting, that is, liberating and asserting the thing from the hand and right of the possessor: whence we call the thing itself in dispute, and which is to be vindicated, the vindiciae claims/property in dispute.

3. Furthermore, vindication is either direct and civil, and it belongs to the owner.

4. Or it is praetorian and fictitious, which is granted as if to an owner, and is called publiciana a type of action to recover possession.

5. Or it is useful and civil, which is given to a useful owner, such as an emphyteuta long-term leaseholder, a superficiarius holder of a building on another's land, etc.

6. Likewise, a vassal, by reason of useful ownership, has the vindication of feudal property, so that he may vindicate it from any possessor, even from the lord of the fief.

7. Therefore, ownership is required on the part of the plaintiff, and it matters not whether it was acquired by the law of nations or by civil law.

8. It is necessary for the plaintiff to prove this: otherwise the defendant is absolved, even if he has provided nothing.

9. Jason and Cinus teach that this proceeds even if the defendant has taken upon himself the burden of proving that the thing is his own: unless it appears that the defendant did this for the sake of relieving the plaintiff of the burden of proof.

10. But when the proof of ownership is usually very difficult, with witnesses perhaps dead due to the length of time, or instruments...