Infracțiuni contra proprietății între lege și fărădelege (Țara Moldovei și Țara Românească în sec. XVII)

Abstract

Whether it is small or of big dimensions, whether realized through ingenious resources or at the limit of violence- burglary has deep growing roots in the Romanian territory. This article refers to the thieves’ most desired and most frequently stolen objects, as well as the punishments inflicted on them. The article’s other objective is to discover the cause which made Romanians steal. During the medieval period people were robbed of all kinds of properties either movable or immovable: public and personal money; ecclesiastic objects, books; cattle; hives; tools; clothes etc. Moreover, toll non-payment, fishing on others’ properties, the deviation of water course, the change of hives borders and the appropriation of goods found in the road were also qualified as thefts. To sum up, we can conclude that the burglary in Middle Ages represented “the infraction versus personal property whereby a movable or immovable good was taken or battered, without the agreement of the owner, towards appropriating unfairly or damaging it”. In current jurisprudence this definition bares a similar meaning, but it is also divided in several categories: theft, robbery and hooliganism. The orientation to burglary of the people of the Middle Ages can be explained by a list of different reasons: poverty, kleptomania, envy and grudge.