Short answer. Article 924 allows all things and rights that are within the commerce of man to be bequeathed or devised. In practical terms, that means anything a person can lawfully own and transfer — property that the law treats as capable of being bought, sold, or otherwise dealt with between people.
What the law says
All things and rights which are within the commerce of man be bequeathed or devised.
Civil Code, Article 924 — What May Be Given by Legacy or Devise. Read the full provision →
'Things and rights' is a broad starting point
Article 924 phrases the rule broadly: all things and rights which are within the commerce of man may be bequeathed or devised. This is not limited to a fixed list of asset types. Both tangible things — a house, a piece of jewelry, a vehicle — and rights, which are not physical objects at all but legally recognized entitlements, fall within what the article allows a testator to leave to someone through a will.
The real limit is 'commerce of man'
The qualifying phrase is what actually narrows the rule: property has to be within the commerce of man to qualify. That phrase describes property that the law allows to be owned privately and to circulate between persons — bought, sold, given, or otherwise transferred. It is the same idea used elsewhere to separate what an individual can hold and dispose of from what the law puts outside ordinary private dealing altogether.
Why this framing matters for a specific legacy
Because the test is whether the property is within the commerce of man, the article is not asking whether the item is valuable, common, or easily described — it is asking whether the thing or right is the kind of property that private persons can legally own and transfer between themselves in the first place. A testator considering what to leave as a specific legacy is working within that boundary: anything on the private-property, transferable side of that line is fair game under Article 924.
What the article leaves for other provisions
Article 924 answers the threshold question of what category of property may be given by legacy or devise at all. It does not itself address how a specific item has to be described in the will, what happens if the property no longer exists by the time the testator dies, or how a legacy interacts with the shares reserved for compulsory heirs. Those are separate questions governed by other rules on wills and succession, distinct from the basic eligibility this article sets out. It likewise says nothing about property the testator does not yet own at all when the will is written, as opposed to property that is simply outside the commerce of man — those are two distinct limits, and this article addresses only the second.