Article I. On Dominion

536. • Definition. Dominion is the legitimate faculty of disposing of some thing as one's own ¹.

¹ Some add: "unless it is prohibited by law"; because, for example, the law does not permit pupils and minors the free alienation of their own things.

Division. Dominion is chiefly divided into perfect and imperfect, according as it is the right of disposing both of the thing itself and of its utility, or of only one or the other.

But imperfect dominion is subdivided into direct and indirect or useful, according as it regards the property of the thing alone, or its utility alone.

They also commonly distinguish high and low dominion. The former is said to be the right which the supreme authority has of disposing, sometimes from a most grave cause, of the goods of private persons for the good of the community, as was said above, n. 534. The latter is the dominion of private persons, to which the definition properly belongs.

Moreover high dominion is not dominion properly so called, or it is not true dominion of property, since the republic per se does not have a strict right in the goods of subjects. But that dominion holds a certain middle place between dominion of property and dominion of jurisdiction, and could be called dominion of administration. - Thus Carrière, n. 19 ².

² But here also the concept is plainly obscure. Say more simply that it is a right proper to the republic, so that it may prescribe what is necessary or expedient for the common good.

We must treat: 1. of the object; 2. of the subject; 3. of the acquisition of dominion.