Property in Vaestism

Property in Vaestism is divided into two broad categories, 'alienable' and 'inalienable'. Alienable property is that property which can in principle be owned fully by any individual. This category covers the vast majority of movable property, as well as the ownership of household slaves. Inalienable property is that property whose ultimate ownership always and exclusively belongs to the Emperor, although usage rights therein are typically devolved to individuals by contract. This category is primarily restricted to land (through the system known as imperial usufruct) and the associated labouring slaves. The distinction dates from the Fifth Chotarian Empire, which legally annexed all land and slaves to the imperial person under the consecrated land system. The modern terminology itself, however, is derived specifically from Great Neritsia: the Imperial Ordinances of 1525 which re-established the legal assumption that all property belongs to the Emperor unless otherwise stated, and Lyudodar's re-affirmation of this assumption in the Eternal Treaty of Nardash (1617).

In contrast to systems of private property such as in Siur law, in Vaestism individual property-holders largely stand in for unities, i.e. family units. Upon marriage most or all property, depending on jurisdiction, becomes automatically shared between the members of the Unity, and is dispensed on this basis upon the 'death' of the Unity through divorce or the death of a member. Most Joriscian systems make provision in inheritance for certain items of sentimental or individual, sometimes considered by outside scholarship as distinct from private property.