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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §41.1.65.pr-41.1.65.4

Transfer of Letters and Ownership of River Islands

Passage 6695 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This chunk discusses the timing of ownership transfer for a letter (whether upon delivery to a messenger or to the recipient) and the ownership and measurement criteria for islands arising in a river (including floating islands).

[LABEO libro sexto pithanon a PAULO epitomatorum. ] §41.1.65.prSi epistulam tibi misero, non erit ea tua, antequam tibi reddita fuerit.
[LABEO, from the sixth book of his "Probabilities", epitomized by PAULUS.] If I send you a letter, it will not be yours until it has been delivered to you.
PAULUS: immo contra: nam si miseris ad me tabellarium tuum et ego rescribendi causa litteras tibi misero, simul atque tabellario tuo tradidero, tuae fient.
PAULUS: On the contrary: for if you send your messenger to me, and I send a letter to you for the sake of replying, as soon as I deliver it to your messenger, it becomes yours.
idem accidet in his litteris, quas tuae dumtaxat rei gratia misero, ueluti si petieris a me, uti te alicui commendarem, et eas commendaticias tibi misero litteras.
The same will happen in the case of those letters which I send solely for your own sake, for example, if you ask me to recommend you to someone, and I send those letters of recommendation to you.
§41.1.65.1Si qua insula in flumine propria tua est, nihil in ea publici est.
If any island in a river is your own property, nothing in it is public.
PAULUS: immo in eo genere insularum ripae flumini et litora mari proxima publica sunt, non secus atque in continenti agro idem iuris est.
PAULUS: On the contrary, in this class of islands, the banks nearest to the river and the shores nearest to the sea are public, just as the same rule of law applies to land on the continent.
§41.1.65.2Si qua insula in flumine publico proxima tuo fundo nata est, ea tua est.
If an island arises in a public river closest to your estate, it is yours.
PAULUS: uideamus ne hoc falsum sit de ea insula, quae non ipsi alueo fluminis cohaeret, sed uirgultis aut alia qualibet leui materia ita sustinetur in flumine, ut solum eius non tangat, atque ipsa mouetur: haec enim propemodum publica atque ipsius fluminis est insula.
PAULUS: Let us see whether this might not be false in the case of an island which is not attached to the riverbed itself, but is supported in the river by shrubs or some other light material in such a way that it does not touch the bottom, and is itself movable; for such an island is virtually public and belongs to the river itself.
§41.1.65.3PAULUS: si insula in flumine nata tua fuerit, deinde inter eam insulam et contrariam ripam alia insula nata fuerit, mensura eo nomine erit instruenda a tua insula, non ab agro tuo, propter quem ea insula tua facta fuerit: nam quid interest, qualis ager sit, cuius propter propinquitatem posterior insula cuius sit quaeratur?
PAULUS: If an island arising in a river becomes yours, and then another island arises between that island and the opposite bank, the measurement on that account must be made from your island, not from your land by reason of which that island became yours; for what difference does it make what kind of land it is, on account of the proximity of which the ownership of the subsequent island is questioned?
§41.1.65.4Si id quod in publico innatum aut aedificatum est, publicum est, insula quoque, quae in flumine publico nata est, publica esse debet.
If that which has grown or been built on public property is public, an island also which has arisen in a public river ought to be public.

Notes

  1. §41.1.65.2uideamus ne hoc falsum sit — The first-person plural hortatory subjunctive uideamus ("let us see/consider") is followed by a ne clause expressing a negative apprehension or doubt ("lest/whether... not"). Thus, the phrase means "let us consider whether this might not be false," implying a cautious doubt about Labeo's statement.
  2. §41.1.65.3nam quid interest, qualis ager sit, cuius propter propinquitatem posterior insula cuius sit quaeratur? — The main clause quid interest is followed by the indirect question qualis ager sit ("what kind of land it is"). The first cuius is a relative pronoun in the genitive case referring to ager, introducing a relative clause. Within this relative clause, another indirect question posterior insula cuius sit ("whose property the subsequent island is") is embedded as the subject of the passive verb quaeratur. The second cuius is an interrogative pronoun. The structure translates literally as: "...the land, on account of the proximity of which it is questioned whose property the subsequent island is."

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §41.1.65.pr-41.1.65.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:41.1.65.pr-41.1.65.4

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