Some remarks on a very first form of protection of fiducia

Abstract

By concluding a fiducia, or by conditional transfer of ownership, the ancient Romans achieved different purposes (preservation of things, money loans etc.) and bypassing the legal formalism at the time. Initially, like many other institutes, fiducia was not protected by lawsuits, but the transferee (fiduciant) he achieved his protection through the institute of usureceptio fuduciae, as a special type of usucapio that Gaius analysed in his Institutes. This paper focuses on the reasons why the transferor had a right on protection by usureceptio fiduciae, possibilities of this protection in the cases of fiduciary agreement concluded with a friend and in the cases where this agreement is concluded with a creditor. Also, this paper is an attempt to answer the question: does the transferor commit the theft with taking over the transferred item?