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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §43.8.3.pr

Status of the Sea and Shores and Limits on Construction

Passage 7056 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Celsus states that shores under Roman sovereignty belong to the Roman people and the sea is common to all like air, allowing ownership of piles driven into it, provided that such actions do not impair the use of the shore or sea.

[CELSUS libro trigensimo nono digestorum. ] §43.8.3.prLitora, in quae populus Romanus imperium habet, populi Romani esse arbitror: Maris communem usum omnibus hominibus, ut aeris, iactasque in id pilas eius esse qui iecerit: sed id concedendum non esse, si deterior litoris marisue usus eo modo futurus sit.
[CELSUS from the thirty-ninth book of the Digests] I think that the shores over which the Roman people has sovereignty belong to the Roman people; that the common use of the sea, like that of the air, belongs to all men, and that piles driven into it belong to the one who drove them; but that this must not be allowed if the use of the shore or of the sea is to be made worse by that means.

Notes

  1. §43.8.3.prin quae — The antecedent is the neuter plural noun Litora (shores). The construction in + accusative indicates the object over which sovereignty (imperium) is exercised.
  2. §43.8.3.prpilas — Here pila does not mean a "ball" for play, but rather refers to "piles," "stone blocks," or "concrete foundations" cast into the sea for harbor installations, breakwaters, or marine structures.
  3. §43.8.3.prfuturus sit — An active periphrastic subjunctive consisting of the future participle futurus and the present subjunctive sit. In the conditional clause with si, it expresses future expectation or likelihood ("if it is going to be / is to be").

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §43.8.3.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:43.8.3.pr

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