On The Establishment Of Acquisitive Prescription System

This thesis aims to demonstrate that Acquisitive Prescription System(APS) should be established in our country's civil law. It is composed of four parts as follows:Part one: The history of APS. APS originated from ancient Rome. The Law of 12 Tables in the fifth century B.C. had the most ancient written rule about APS which was called "usucapio"in Latin. Later, usucapio was developed progressively and in the time of Emperor Justinian , more detailed APS was established. APS was adopted in civil laws of modern capitalism countries. Now most countries in the world have APS in their civil laws. Influenced by former Soviet Union's law, there is no APS in General Rules of Civil Law of our country, but the principle of APS has been applied in the administration of justice and embodied in some local regulations.Part two: APS should be set up in our country's civil law. APS has important functions both in economy and law. The system of limitation of actions and the system of acquisition in good faith can not take place of APS.Part three: The application of APS. A civil subject with the capacity for civil rights but without the ownership to an object can acquire the ownership to the object after he has been possessing the object openly, peacefully and continuously for a certain period of time with the intention that he has the ownership to the object. Whether the civil subject has the capacity for civil disposition or whether he is in good faith when he possesses the object makes no difference to the application of APS. When the civil subject is an artificial person or one of the co-owner to the object, APS works but more strict conditions should be met.Part Four: The effect of acquisitive prescription. In this part, the author inquires into some problems concerning the effect of acquisitive prescription: retroaction of acquisitive prescription, right to defense of the person who acquires the ownership through APS, whether a judge can apply APS even if litigant parties didn't invoke it, and what kind of civil rights besides ownership can be obtained through APS, etc.