For the source text click/tap here: Chullin 40
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The Mishnah teaches that if someone slaughters an animal for idol worship – e.g. for mountains, hills, seas, rivers or deserts – the shechita is invalid. What if the animal that is slaughtered belonged to someone else? Is it possible to forbid someone else’s property?
Rav Huna teaches that if someone’s neighbor’s beast was lying in front of an idol, then as soon as he has cut one of the organs of the throat – either the esophagus or the trachea – he has rendered it prohibited. In contrast, the Gemara brings the opinion of Rav Nachman, Rav Amram and Rav Yitzchak who rule that a person cannot render prohibited something that does not belong to him.
This principle that one cannot prohibit what is not one’s own (ein adam oser davar she-eino shelo) functions in the Talmudic system as a constitutional limit on the reach of private legal acts. We explore how this compares with the Roman law of dominium, the doctrine of nemo dat quod non habet, and the Roman treatment of res religiosae and consecration.