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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §43.20.8.pr

Right to Build Channels on Servient Land and Its Limits

Passage 7119 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It provisions the right of a person with a watercourse servitude to construct a channel anywhere on the land, provided they do not disrupt the flow of water.

[SCAEUOLA libro singulari ὅρων. ] §43.20.8.prCui per fundum iter aquae debetur, quacumque uult in eo riuum licet faciat, dum ne aquae ductum interuerteret.
Anyone to whom a right of watercourse through a tract of land is owed is permitted to construct a channel wherever he wishes on it, provided that he does not disrupt the flow of water.

Notes

  1. §43.20.8.prCui — A relative pronoun in the dative case, where its antecedent `ei` (which would serve as the dative complement of the impersonal verb `licet` in the main clause) is omitted. The overall structure is 'to whom [the right] is owed, [to him] it is permitted...'.
  2. §43.20.8.prlicet faciat — The present subjunctive `faciat` directly follows the impersonal verb `licet` without the conjunction `ut` to express what is permitted (the `licet` + subjunctive construction).
  3. §43.20.8.printeruerteret — The imperfect subjunctive in the conditional-limiting clause introduced by `dum ne`. Since the main verbs (`licet`, `uult`) are in the present tense, this deviates from the standard sequence of tenses (consecutio temporum). It may reflect a focus on the pre-existing legal status of the servitude (`debetur`), or serve to hypothetically state a continuous future condition ('provided he would not disrupt').

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §43.20.8.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:43.20.8.pr

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