Property rights and ownership as legal categories

Abstract

The existence of human society is unthinkable without a huge variety of social relations that arise between individual individuals, groups, classes, nations, etc. in connection with their existence and life activity. A special place among all social relations is given to relations related to the property sphere, which, due to objective and subjective factors, are in a dominant position over all others. The need for their regulation by legal means, taking into account the dynamics of property relations in society and the importance that property acquires in theoretical and practical terms, creates complex legal problems. Despite the importance of the regulation of property relations, researchers of theoretical and practical problems of these relations have repeatedly emphasized the fact that science has not developed uniform interpretations of the category «property» and «property right» that would fully reflect the essence of the given category. This circumstance only actualizes research devoted to property and the right to property as legal categories. The purpose of the study is to analyze the «status» of property and property rights as legal categories. It was established that ownership should be understood in two senses: «de jure» and «de facto». «De jure» property is a legal shell (form) that mediates economic property relations for the purpose of their legal regulation. "De facto" characterizes the practical application of ownership, shows that its legal understanding is reflected in practice. If the subject owns property and has specific authority over it, then it is considered that the subject acts as the owner of the property based on the right of ownership. Ownership, unlike ownership (which is a form), is content. The right of ownership must be defined as the right of the subject (owner), aimed at satisfying his desire to own, use and dispose of a certain thing, taking into account the interests of other persons, regulated by legal norms. The owner exercises authority at his discretion, that is, the will of the owner is based directly on the law and exists independently of the will of other subjects. The will of these subjects is not only based on the law, but also depends on the owner's will and is determined by it. This is a characteristic inherent only to the right of ownership as an absolute property right.