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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §41.1.14.pr-41.1.14.1

Ownership of Buildings on the Seashore and Status of the Site

Passage 6644 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

On the ownership of buildings constructed on the seashore and the transition of the site's legal status when such buildings are removed.

[NERATIUS libro quinto membranarum. ] §41.1.14.prQuod in litore quis aedificauerit, eius erit: nam litora publica non ita sunt, ut ea, quae in patrimonio sunt populi, sed ut ea, quae primum a natura prodita sunt et in nullius adhuc dominium peruenerunt: nec dissimilis condicio eorum est atque piscium et ferarum, quae simul atque adprehensae sunt, sine dubio eius, in cuius potestatem peruenerunt, dominii fiunt.
[NERATIUS, Parchments, book 5] What someone has built on the seashore will be his; for public seashores are not public in the same way as things that are in the patrimony of the people, but as things that were first produced by nature and have not yet come into anyone's ownership. And their condition is not different from that of fish and wild beasts, which, as soon as they are captured, undoubtedly become the property of the person into whose power they have come.
§41.1.14.1Illud uidendum est, sublato aedificio, quod in litore positum erat, cuius condicionis is locus sit, hoc est utrum maneat eius cuius fuit aedificium, an rursus in pristinam causam reccidit perindeque publicus sit, ac si numquam in eo aedificatum fuisset.
It must be considered what the condition of the site is when a building that had been placed on the seashore is removed; that is, whether it remains his to whom the building belonged, or falls back again into its former status and becomes public just as if a building had never been constructed on it.
quod propius est, ut existimari debeat, si modo recipit pristinam litoris speciem.
The latter view is more correct, as must be deemed to be the case, provided only that it recovers its former appearance as a seashore.

Notes

  1. 41.1.14.prdominii fiunt — dominii is a genitive of ownership (or description), serving as a predicate with fiunt along with eius (the antecedent of in cuius...). It means 'become of the ownership / property [of someone]'.
  2. 41.1.14.1quod propius est, ut existimari debeat — quod is a relative pronoun referring back to the latter alternative of the preceding indirect question (utrum... an...), meaning 'which [latter view] is nearer [to the truth / more reasonable]'. ut... debeat introduces the explanatory clause.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §41.1.14.pr-41.1.14.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:41.1.14.pr-41.1.14.1

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