THE LEGAL NATURE AND INTERRELATION OF THE INSTITUTIONS OF POSSESSION AND OWNERSHIP: HISTORICAL, IDEOLOGICAL, AND COMPARATIVE LEGAL ANALYSIS

This article provides a comprehensive comparative and doctrinal analysis of the legal nature of possession and ownership, tracing their evolution from Roman law foundations to modern Georgian civil legislation. The study explores the substantive interrelation between these two institutions, emphasizing ownership as an expression of personal freedom and the realization of human will. A significant portion of the research is dedicated to a critical evaluation of the distorted paradigms within Soviet legal doctrine, where the essence of ownership was systematically emptied and possession was reduced to a functional tool for state-controlled resource management. Through a comparative lens involving German (BGB), French, Swiss, and Italian legal systems, the article examines the transition from factual control (corpus) to the legal presumption of ownership. The author argues that the immanent human desire for mastery over objects is a fundamental catalyst for the creation of social order, where factual possession serves as the primary ground for the birth of legal rights. The research concludes that the restoration of private law principles and the legal protection of possession are essential for maintaining the equilibrium between individual freedom and social obligations.