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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §43.20.6.pr

Definition of Summer Water and Its Criteria

Passage 7117 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It discusses the definition of summer water, questioning whether it should be determined by right, the drawer's intention, the natural properties of the water, or the utility of the land, and concludes that it should be defined by the two criteria of the water's nature and the land's utility.

[NERATIUS libro tertio membranarum. ] §43.20.6.prDe interdicto de aqua aestiua, item cottidiana quaerentes primum constituendum existimabamus, quae esset aqua aestiua, de qua proprium interdictum ad prioris aestatis tempus relatum reddi solet, hoc est aestiua aqua utrumne ex iure aestiuo dumtaxat tempore utendi diceretur, an ex mente propositoque ducentis, quod aestate eam ducendi consilium haberet, an ex natura ipsius aquae, quod aestate tantum duci potest, an ex utilitate locorum, in quae duceretur.
[NERATIUS, in the third book of Epistles.] In inquiring into the interdict concerning summer water, and likewise daily water, we thought it first necessary to determine what was summer water, concerning which a special interdict related to the period of the preceding summer is usually granted; that is, whether "summer water" is so called merely from the right to use it in the summer time, or from the mind and purpose of the person drawing it, because he has the intention of drawing it in summer, or from the nature of the water itself, because it can only be drawn in summer, or from the utility of the places into which it is drawn.
placebat igitur aquam ob has duas res, naturam suam utilitatemque locorum in quae deducitur, proprie appellari, ita ut, siue eius natura erit, ut nisi aestate duci non possit, etiamsi hieme quoque desideraretur, siue omni tempore anni duci eam ipsius natura permitteret, si utilitas personis, in quam ducitur, aestate dumtaxat usum eius exigeret, aestiua recte diceretur.
It was therefore agreed that water is properly so called on account of these two things: its own nature and the utility of the places into which it is drawn; so that, whether its nature is such that it cannot be drawn except in summer, even if it were also desired in winter, or whether its own nature permits it to be drawn at any time of the year, if the utility to the persons into which [the land] it is drawn requires its use only in summer, it would rightly be called summer water.

Notes

  1. §43.20.6.prex iure aestiuo dumtaxat tempore utendi — aestiuo can agree either with iure (ablative singular neuter) or tempore (ablative singular neuter). Given the legal concept of ius aestiuum (summer right), it is most reasonable to take ex iure aestiuo (from a summer right) as a unit, qualified by dumtaxat tempore utendi (merely at the time of use).
  2. §43.20.6.prplacebat — The imperfect tense of the impersonal verb placere, used as a legal technical term meaning 'it was approved' or 'it was the accepted opinion' among jurists.
  3. §43.20.6.prutilitas personis, in quam ducitur — In the manuscript tradition, personis (dative/ablative plural) is highly likely a corruption of possessionis (genitive singular, 'of the possession'). The relative pronoun quam in in quam ducitur (into which it is led) is feminine singular, which perfectly agrees with possessionis. While translating personis literally as 'to the persons', the context assumes the leading of water into a tract of land or possession.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §43.20.6.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:43.20.6.pr

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