Cameron Miranda
The concept of community property, which originated in civil law jurisdictions, is a U.S. state-level legal distinction that designates a married individual's assets. Any income and any real or personal property acquired by either spouse during a marriage are considered community property and thus belong to both. The community property concept can be traced back to ancient Egypt and Greece, with text from the Code of Hammurabi containing some legal features of community property. In the United States, nine states have community property laws: California, Arizona, Nevada, Louisiana, Idaho, New Mexico, Washington, Texas, and Wisconsin.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Origin | The concept of community property may have originated from Spanish law, which is a system of civil law derived from Roman civil law and the Visigoth Code. However, certain forms of marital community have also been traced back to ancient Egypt and Greece, with the Code of Hammurabi containing some legal features of community property. |
| Application | Community property refers to a U.S. state-level legal distinction that designates a married individual's assets. Any income or property acquired by either spouse during a marriage is considered community property and belongs to both spouses equally. |
| Exclusions | Gifts, inheritances, property acquired prior to marriage, or property acquired when spouses are permanently living apart are typically excluded from community property. |
| Types | There are different types of community property regimes, including Community of Profit and Loss, Limited Community Property, and Absolute Community Property, each with varying treatments of assets and liabilities. |
| U.S. States with Community Property Laws | Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, and Puerto Rico. Additionally, Alaska, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida have adopted optional community property systems. |
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What You'll Learn
The Code of Hammurabi
Under Hammurabi’s reign, there were three social classes. The amelu were originally elite persons with full civil rights, whose birth, marriage, and death were recorded. Although they had certain privileges, they were also liable for harsher punishment and higher fines. The king and his court, high officials, professionals, and craftsmen belonged to this group. The mushkenu was a free man who may have been landless. He was required to accept monetary compensation, paid smaller fines, and lived in a separate section of the city. The ardu was a slave whose master paid for his upkeep, but also took his compensation. An ardu could own property and other slaves, and could purchase his freedom.
Women entered into marriage through a contract arranged by her family. She came with a dowry, and the gifts given by the groom to the bride also came with her. Divorce was up to the husband, but after divorce, he then had to restore the dowry and provide her with an income. If a man wished to separate from his wife, he had to give her the dowry and a part of the field, garden, and property, so that she could rear her children. When she had brought up her children, a portion of all that was given to the children, equal to that of one son, was given to her. She could then marry the man of her choice.
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Ancient Egypt and Greece
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt did not have a formal code of law, but several pharaohs, such as Bocchoris (c. 722–c. 715 BC), were known as lawgivers. After the 7th century BC, many legal transactions required written deeds or contracts instead of oral agreements. The ultimate authority in settling disputes was the pharaoh, who delegated powers to provincial governors and other officials. The most heinous criminals were judged by the pharaoh, who often passed down severe punishments, including penal servitude, execution, mutilation, and flogging.
Ancient Egyptian law supported basic human rights and promoted individual rights. Women in Ancient Egypt had the same legal rights as men, including the right to own, bequeath, and inherit property, file lawsuits, and bear witness in court proceedings without the authority of their father or husband. They could also divorce their husbands and regain sole ownership of their possessions, including the dowry. The working class and slaves were also afforded some legal rights, with slaves being allowed to own property under certain circumstances.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece, which existed as a collection of city-states known as poleis, lacked a codified law code used across the country. Each city-state had different laws, but they shared common bases rooted in cultural unity, such as δίκη ("law, justice"), κύριος ("lord, master"), and βλάβη ("injury"). Athens is typically the model provided for Greek law.
The earliest Greek law to survive is the Dreros inscription, a seventh-century BC law concerning the role of kosmos. Athenian law codes set forth by Draco were reformed by Solon, who was the archon of Athens c.593 BC. Solon's reforms included changes to land ownership, the cancellation of debts, and the abolition of slavery for native Athenians. The earliest notions of Greek law can be found in the writings of eighth-century Homer and Hesiod. Ancient Greek laws also included the concepts of inheritance and adoption, commerce and contract, and the publicity uniformly given to legal agreements.
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Visigothic Code
The Visigothic Code, also called the Lex Visigothorum or Law of the Visigoths in English, is a set of laws first promulgated by King Chindasuinth (642-653 AD) of the Visigothic Kingdom in his second year of rule (642-643). The Visigothic Code is one of the best surviving examples of leges barbarorum, or laws of the barbarians, a term used to refer to laws outside of Roman legal tradition. It combines elements of Roman law, Catholic law, and Germanic tribal customary law.
The Visigothic Code marks the transition from Roman law to Germanic law. During the first centuries of Visigothic rule, Romans and Goths were ruled by different laws. The earliest known Visigothic laws are the Code of Euric, compiled by around 480 AD. The first written laws of the Visigothic kingdom were compiled during the rule of King Alaric II and were based on existing Roman imperial laws and their interpretations. The Breviarium (Breviary of Alaric) was promulgated during a meeting of Visigothic nobles in Toulouse on February 2, 506.
In 654, Chindasuinth's son, King Recceswinth (649-672), published an enlarged version of the Visigothic Code, which applied equally to the conquering Goths and the general population, who had Roman roots and had lived under Roman laws. This code abolished the old tradition of separate laws for Romans (leges romanae) and Visigoths (leges barbarorum). Under it, all subjects of the Visigothic kingdom became hispani, eliminating social and legal differences and allowing for greater assimilation of the population.
The Visigothic Code governed and sanctioned family life and, by extension, political life, including marriage, the transmission of property to heirs, and safeguarding the rights of widows and orphans. Particularly with the Visigoth's Law Codes, women could inherit land and title, manage land independently from their husbands or male relations, dispose of their property in legal wills if they had no heirs, represent themselves and bear witness in court by age 14, and arrange their own marriages by age 20.
The Visigothic Code was later adopted and observed by Ferdinand III of Castile in the 13th century, who had it translated into Spanish as the Fuero Juzgo. An Occitan language translation, the Llibre Jutge, is among the oldest literary texts in that language, dating to around 1050. In 1910, an English translation by Samuel Parsons Scott was published, but it received severe criticism.
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Roman civil law
In early Roman law, continuous possession for two years established the title for land, and one year for movable property. Possession had to be justifiable and in good faith, and the item could not be stolen or acquired through violence. Ownerless things, excluding temples, could be claimed through "occupatio", where they became the property of the first person to take possession of them. This included wild animals, islands, and possibly abandoned articles. "Accessio" was another concept in Roman civil law, where if an accessory belonging to one person was joined to a principal belonging to another, ownership of the whole went to the owner of the principal. For example, if a person's purple dye was used to dye another's cloth, the dyed cloth now belonged to the owner of the cloth.
The transfer of property, or "mancipatio", involved a ceremonial process requiring the presence of the transferor and transferee, five witnesses (adult male Roman citizens), a pair of scales, a man to hold them, and an ingot of copper or bronze.
Roman marriage laws initially disallowed wives from possessing anything of their own. However, later Roman law allowed wives to own property in their own name, giving rise to the dowry system. This shift in Roman law may have influenced the development of community property laws, which are found in nine US states: California, Arizona, Nevada, Louisiana, Idaho, New Mexico, Washington, Texas, and Wisconsin. Community property laws state that any income or property acquired by either spouse during a marriage is considered to belong to both spouses equally, regardless of who earned or spent the income.
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Spanish law
The concept of community property is considered to have originated in Spanish law, which is a system of civil law derived from Roman civil law and the Visigothic Code. The Code of Euric and the Fuero Juzgo, or the Visigothic Code, outlined legal precedence for the shared property of a husband and wife, with the latter containing the custom of the community of property.
The community property system is justified by the pragmatic recognition that joint ownership acknowledges the theoretically equal contributions of both spouses to the family unit, a basic component of civil society. Under Spanish law, community property may consist of all types of property, including real property ("immovable property") and personal property ("movable property"), such as financial accounts, stocks, bonds, and cash.
In addition to its legal influence, Spain also left a legacy of community planning in its colonies through the Laws of the Indies. These laws, signed in 1573, provided guidelines for the design and development of communities, including town planning, architecture, and social order. They recognized the land rights of indigenous people and promoted the use of native languages in colonial society.
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Frequently asked questions
The first community property laws can be traced back to ancient Egypt and Greece, with the Code of Hammurabi containing some legal features of community property.
The Code of Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonian code of laws, contains some legal features of community property that are still used today.
In the United States, community property laws vary by state. Nine states recognize community property laws: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.
