Morals of the Church
Library › Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis › Volume II › Treatise XI. On The Virtue Of Justice And The Opposed Vices › Section I. On Right And On The Virtue Of Justice Itself › Question I. On Right Itself › Chapter III. On The Subject Of Right Or Dominion › Article I. On The Dominion Of Spouses

Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis

On The Dominion Of Spouses According To Roman Law

17.

17. Roman law distinguished the wife's goods of three kinds, for example: 1. paraphernal, 2. dotal, 3. common.

  1. Paraphernal goods (so called from the Greek words παρά, that is, besides, and φερνή, that is, dowry) are goods handed over to the husband besides the dowry,9 and which the wife is accustomed to receive from gifts, inheritance, her own industry, etc. But in order that those goods be regarded as paraphernal, the wife must reserve them for herself explicitly or implicitly; otherwise they are considered dotal, since by marrying the wife is thought to give herself and all her things to the husband.

  2. Dotal goods are those which the woman hands over to the husband for the relief of the burdens of matrimony and for the support of the family.

  3. But common goods are those which are acquired by the labor of each spouse during matrimony.

With these distinctions established, the following principles are valid:

  1. The wife has perfect dominion (that is, direct and useful) and also administration of paraphernal goods.10

  2. The wife indeed has direct dominion of dotal goods, but neither their administration nor useful dominion, both of which pertain to the husband.11

  3. The wife has direct dominion of one half of the common goods, so that when the husband dies this half of the goods falls to the wife; but useful dominion and the administration of all common goods pertain to the husband.

9 In the German and Swiss civil Code paraphernal goods are called Vorbehaltsgut, Sondergut.

10 Cod. lib. 5, tit. 14, l. 8.

11 Dig. lib. 23, tit. 4, l. 7.

Property Rights of Married Women