Collective aspects in Roman law models of ‘private ownership’

Nowadays it is generally believed that people have rights on things, which makes things merely at the disposal of people’s will. Under the influence of this mentality, notwithstanding that some scholars have hinted at the fact that this approach is heavily influenced by a certain ideological setting that has taken shape in the last centuries, it is still possible to find scholars who maintain that the relationships between persons and things, also in Roman law, were regulated in such an ‘individual will centered’ approach as the one we use today. However, it is not difficult to find elements that disclose how the Roman mentality - and the related regulations - have considered this relationship from a different perspective. In fact, as many evidences suggest, a very relevant role in the relationship between persons and things was played by the family, so that - although to a different extent throughout the time - even what could seem to be somehow similar to the nowadays ‘private ownership’, should nonetheless be considered within the scheme of a family based community that may be framed as a kind of a ‘collectivisme consanguin’.