through various interpretative schemes, gave the concepts of Roman law a degree of abstraction, such as universal duties and rights, that Roman law proper lacked. The power of dominiumaccording to Roman law gave the dominus, in this case the creditor, a supernatural supremacy over the specific species of a certain thing, whereby the claimant was considered to be connected to the thing via a magical bond, but in contrast to modern jurisprudence dominiumwas never construed of as the universal entitlement to demand that each and every non-owner respected the rightful owner’s possession and ownership.74 What the power of dominium, according to Roman law, endowed the owner with was the right to the actio of rei vindicatio,75 which is an actio under which property disputes fall, but not the actio under which contractual and other disputes regarding the doings of persons sui iuris fall (as the modern interpretation, with its universal construction of a duty would construe dominiumto entail).76 By means of rei vindicatio, the plaintiff could take action against the specific person withholding the disputed object from the plaintiff.77 Roman law thus did not grant the plaintiff the power to subject the defendant to the legal duty of reinstating the rightful owner or possessor of his or her possession.78 On the contrary, what Roman law actually entitled the plaintiff to was the right/opportunity to restore his own possession and dispossess the actual (wrongful) possessor without violating the law, thereby committing an iniuria. a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 401 2 . 1. 2 Dominium: the supremacy ove r the speci e s of a thing 74 Hägerström, “Nehrman-Ehrenstråles uppfattning,” pp. 577-578; Recht, Pflicht etc, p. 20. 75 Hägerström, “Nehrman-Ehrenstråles uppfattning,” p. 578 and 612; Recht, Pflicht etc, pp. 20-21 and 62-63. 76 Schulz, Classical Roman Law, pp. 368-374. 77 Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, Berger, ed., Actiones in personam. 78 Cf. Hägerström,“Nehrman-Ehrenstråles uppfattning,” p. 612; Recht, Pflicht etc, p. 63.
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