Specificatio (Roman law)

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Specificatio is a legal concept adopted from Roman law. It is an original mode of acquisition, since it involves deriving rights over objects that are not subject to pre-existing rights of ownership. This may be compared with the original modes of acquisition, and other derivative modes of acquisition, such as accession. Specificatio occurs where new property rights are established as a result of some action upon objects – owned by someone else – that results in a change of species.