Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology
§ III. On the Modes of Acquiring Strict Rights
There are some who judge labor to be the only legitimate mode of acquiring strict rights, and therefore that ownership and income or proceeds which have not been gained by labor are to be attacked and abolished. Pius XI declares these things to be erroneous in the encyclical Quadragesimo anno,1 and it will be clear from the things to be said concerning the other modes of acquiring rights. Nor is the Apostle rightly appealed to for confirming the said error when he says: "If any man will not work, neither let him eat."2 "For the Apostle pronounces sentence against those who abstain from work, although they can and ought to labor, and he warns that time and the powers either of body or of mind are to be used diligently, and that others are not to be burdened when we can provide for ourselves. But the Apostle by no means teaches that labor is the only title for receiving food or proceeds."3
Therefore diverse modes of acquiring strict rights are distinguished: primitive or originative, and derivative or translative. Primitive modes are those by which either a thing, or right, which belonged to no one is acquired, or a thing which belonged to someone is transferred into the ownership of another independently of the act of the prior owner. Of the former kind are occupation, production, to which we reduce specification, and accession; of the latter kind are prescription, and in a certain way also possession, and finally legal succession. Derivative modes are those by which a thing, or right, which belonged to someone becomes another's dependently on the act of the prior owner; here belong testament, or testamentary succession, and contract.4 We shall speak of each, with the exception, however, of contract, which we shall treat in a special chapter.5
1 Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1931, p. 197.
3 Encyclical cited, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1931, p. 197.
4 Most authors, however, call primitive those modes by which a thing which belonged to no one is acquired; derivative, those modes by which a thing which belonged to someone is acquired.
5 We proceed thus because contract, although it is a mode of acquiring a strict right, nevertheless ought rather to be considered as the matter of commutative justice.
Within this section
Point I. On Occupationnn. 789–798
- I. On the Occupation of Animalsnn. 791–794
- II. On the Occupation of Treasurenn. 795–796
- III. On the Occupation of Lost Thingsnn. 797–798
- Point II. On Production and Specificationnn. 799–802
- Point III. On Accessionnn. 803–804
Point IV. On Prescriptionnn. 805–811
Point V. On Hereditary Successionnn. 812–827