Revendication

Revendication is a noun used in Romance-language legal and political vocabularies to denote the act of asserting a claim to something or reclaiming possession. In general use, it can refer to both the declaration that one possesses rights to an object or status and the formal demand for those rights. The term is closely linked to verbs such as revendiquer (French), reivindicar (Spanish), and reivindicar (Portuguese), and appears in contexts involving property, rights, and social claims. Its etymology traces to the French verb revendiquer, meaning to claim back or reclaim, derived from a prefix meaning again plus a root referring to a claim.

In civil-law jurisdictions, reivindicación (Spanish) or reivindicação (Portuguese) denotes a specific real action to recover property that the claimant asserts as their own. The claimant typically must prove ownership or title, and the current possessor must have no lawful right to retain the item. The remedy usually involves delivery of the property to the rightful owner or restoration of possession. This action is distinct from other remedies such as possession or usufruct disputes and often intersects with issues of title and registration.

In English-language usage, the term is uncommon and is usually encountered as a loanword or translated as “claim,” “reclamation,” or “assertion of rights.” It is most commonly found in translations of legal texts from Spanish, Portuguese, or French, and in discussions of civil-law property systems. The term may also appear in political or social contexts to describe the activity of groups asserting or reclaiming rights and recognition.