Ugovor o kupoprodaji kao pravni osnov (iustus titulus) / The Contract of Sale as a Just Title (iustus titulus)
za sticanje vlasništva u starobabilonskom pravu prve polovine drugog milenija p. n. e. / for Acquiring Ownership in Old Babylonian Law of the First Half of the Second Millennium BCE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54524/2490-3930.2025.45Keywords:
Old Babylonian law, contract of sale, iustus titulus, Code of Hammurabi, right of ownership, Mesopotamian legal system, ilkum system, Sumer and Akkad, contractual clauses, cuneiform sources, legal history of the ancient Near EastAbstract
This paper critically reexamines the legal nature of the contract of sale in Old Babylonian law during the specified period, with the aim of determining whether such a contract could constitute a valid iustus titulus for the acquisition of ownership rights. Grounded in a legal-theoretical framework and relying on a hermeneutic analysis of cuneiform sources alongside relevant secondary literature, the author argues that the conception of ownership in the Old Babylonian legal system was grounded in the socially recognized institutional foundation of legal acts and in their socio-functional role, rather than on abstract and individualistic rights of a subjective nature, as characteristic of Western European legal traditions rooted in Roman legal thought. According to the extant legal material, the contract of sale possessed immediate constitutive effect in terms of transferring ownership, whereby the physical delivery of the object (traditio) did not constitute a necessary legal act. The decisive moment in the acquisition of proprietary rights was the payment of the agreed price, accompanied by formal and ritual elements that affirmed the legal validity of the transaction. Particular emphasis is placed on the legal status of land within the ilkum system, where the discrepancy between the normative prohibition of alienability and the realities of everyday legal practice becomes especially evident. Through a functional and legal-theoretical analysis of this arguably central legal institution, the study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the internal logic and systemic coherence of the Mesopotamian legal order.
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