Skip to content- Aqua cedit solo. The water goes with the ground. • A grant of the land includes the water on it.
- Aqua currit et debet currere ut currere solebat. Water runs and ought to run as it has been used to run.
- Aquaeductus est ius aquam ducendi per fundum alienum. Aquaeductus is the right of conducting water through somebody else’s land. Dig. 8.3.1pr.
- Aqua quae in rivo nascitur tacite lucri fit ab eo qui ducit. Water that originates in a stream silently profits him who diverts it. Dig. 43. 20.3.3. • The passage continues: “Diverting water is an established right whose origin is lost to memory.”
- Cum via publica fluminis impetu vel ruina amissa est, vicinus proximus viam praestare debet. When the public road is lost by the flooding of a stream or (other) disaster, the nearest neighbor should provide a roadway. Dig. 8.6.14.1.
- Flumina et portus publica sunt, ideoque jus piscandi omnibus commune est. Rivers and ports are public; and therefore the right of fishing is common to all.
- In suo hactenus facere licet quatenus nihil in alienum immittit. One may do what he likes on his own property, so long as he does not invade (or send anything into) another’s property.
- Lacus est quod perpetuam habet aquam. A lake is what holds water continuously. Dig. 43.14.1.3.
- Lacus et stagna, et licet interdum crescant, interdum exarescant, suos tamen terminos retinent; ideoque in his ius alluvionis non agnoscitur. Lakes and pools, although they sometimes increase and sometimes dry up, nevertheless retain their boundaries; therefore in these the right of alluvion is not recognized. Dig. 41.1.12pr.
- Litus est quousque maximus fluctus a mari pervenit. The shore is where the highest wave from the sea has reached.
- Litus publicum est eatenus qua maxime fluctus exaestuat. The shore is public as far as the waves reach at the highest point. Dig. 50.16.112 (continuing with “the same right applies to a lake, unless the whole is private”).
- Naturali iure omnium communia sunt illa: äer, aqua profluens, et mare, et, per hoc, litora maris. By natural law, the following things belong to all: the air, the flowing water, and the sea, and, by extension, the shores of the sea. Just. Inst. 2.1.
- Publicum flumen est quod perenne sit. A public stream is one that is perennial (not seasonal). Dig. 43.12.1.3.
- Qui facit per alium facit per se. A person who acts through another acts himself. • The acts of an agent are considered the acts of the principal.
- Quod per alluvionem agro nostro flumen adiicit id iure gentium nobis acquiritur. What a river adds to our farmland through alluvial accretion (or alluvion) is acquired by us according to the law of nations. Just. Inst. 2.1.20; cf. Gaius Inst. 2.70.
- Ripa ea putatur esse quae plenissimum flumen continet. The riverbank is considered to be what holds the stream at its fullest. Dig. 43.12.3.1.
- Riparum usus publicus est jure gentium, sicut ipsius fluminis. The use of riverbanks is by the law of nations public, like that of the stream itself.
