Definition
Property acquired by purchase, gift, or any means other than inheritance or succession. In civil law jurisdictions, acquets specifically describes immovable property obtained through active acquisition rather than through descent from an ancestor. In the marital property context, acquets refers to the profits and gains accumulated during marriage — the earnings of both spouses, the produce of jointly managed property, and the fruits of assets under the husband's administration — that form the community estate subject to division.
The term operates primarily in two registers:
1. General civil law sense: Any property acquired other than by succession, contrasted with property that descends through inheritance.
2. Marital/community property sense: The gains and profits accruing during marriage from either spouse's labor or from community assets, forming the core of what Louisiana and other civil law jurisdictions treat as community property subject to equal division upon dissolution.
Common Confusion
Acquets is often paired with the term GAINS in historical sources and statutes (the phrase "acquets and gains" appears throughout Louisiana civil law materials), which can create the impression that the two words describe distinct categories. In practice, the pairing is largely redundant — both terms reach toward the same concept of property actively accumulated during the marriage as opposed to property received passively through inheritance. Researchers should not read a meaningful legal distinction into the conjunctive phrase. Separately, ACQUETS should not be confused with CONQUETS, a closely related civil law term sometimes used interchangeably in French-derived legal systems, though some authorities treat conquets as the narrower category limited to immovables acquired during marriage.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a term of art that appears almost exclusively in civil law jurisdictions and in American states with civilian legal heritage, particularly Louisiana and, to a lesser extent, New Mexico and other former Spanish-territory states. Researchers working with pre-twentieth-century Louisiana materials will encounter ACQUETS and GAINS as the operative phrase governing marital property — the equivalent of what common law states address through separate property and marital property distinctions.
The key research trap is applying common law intuitions to this term. In common law systems, property received as a gift during marriage is often treated as separate property of the recipient spouse. Under the civil law conception of acquets reflected in these sources, gifts received during marriage may be drawn into the community estate depending on the jurisdiction's rules — the definition of acquets as property acquired "by gift" signals a broader sweep than common law researchers expect.
Corpus researchers should also note that acquets appears in sources referencing the Louisiana Civil Code, Article 2369 (as cited in Black's and Burrill's). That article, and the surrounding community property provisions, is the doctrinal home of the term in American law. When tracking this concept across time in the Law Mind corpus, watch for the shift from acquets as a live operative term in nineteenth-century Louisiana sources to its gradual replacement by the phrase "community property" in later statutory and judicial usage.
Anderson's Dictionary of Law dispenses with a full definition and cross-references PURCHASE, reflecting how some compilers treated acquets as a subordinate concept rather than a freestanding term — a signal that its importance varies significantly by jurisdiction and era.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge on a two-part definition: the general civil law meaning (property acquired other than by succession) and the marital property meaning (profits and gains between husband and wife). Black's 1st and 2nd editions, Bouvier's, and Burrill's are in close agreement, with Bouvier's offering the most complete articulation of the marital sense — enumerating the profits of assets under the husband's administration, the produce of joint industry, and the estates of both spouses as components of the community. This enumeration is useful context for researchers because it maps the scope of what the community estate encompassed under the civil law framework.
None of the historical dictionaries fully address the tension between the general definition (which includes gifts) and the marital property context (where gifts to one spouse were sometimes treated differently). Bouvier's comes closest by distinguishing between property under the husband's administration "of right or in fact" and the "produce of joint industry," but the dictionaries do not resolve this tension explicitly. Researchers working on disputes involving gift property in civil law marriages should look past the dictionary definitions to the Civil Code provisions and their jurisprudential interpretation.
Jurisdictional Note
Acquets as a legal term of art is effectively confined to Louisiana in American law, with historical appearances in New Mexico materials reflecting that state's Spanish civil law heritage. Common law states have no equivalent doctrine, and the term is not used in federal law except in cases arising from Louisiana community property disputes.