The Concept of Possession in Civil Law

Possession constitutes a complicated phenomenon of civil law to understand, which leads to numerous studies of its legal nature. Possession has a long history, during which its contents have been transformed. The author analyzed the difference in the content of possession using the civil legislation of Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Spain as cases for the study. The ambiguity of the concept of possession leads to the situation when in the doctrine this term is used to describe phenomena that do not relate to possession as an institution of property law. Thus, scholars often use the term «possession» in relation to digital assets, tokens, etc., when researching and describing concepts related to the digitalization of civil turnover. The author substantiates the impossibility of using the terminology of property law to digital objects. The paper analyzes the significance of transfer of possession during the transfer of ownership under the contract of sale and in the event of possession arising under a works contract. The conclusion is formulated according to which possession can be associated only with physical entities and it is inherent exclusively to the legal regime of things, but not other objects of civil rights. The concept of bona fide prescription possession is formulated and a conclusion is made about its legal nature. The author highlights and argues the point of view according to which the doctrinal classification of possession, depending on the type of thing (movable or immovable), into ordinary and «bookish» for the purposes of differentiating ways of its protection is controversial. Attention is drawn to the fact that possession can act as a fact and as a right. At the same time, as a legal fact, possession must be differentiated for the purposes of protecting the interests of the authorized party.