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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §47.9.5.pr

Ordinary Actions for Theft of Rescued Shipwreck Property

Passage 7992 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Gaius explains the conditions under which ordinary actions for theft or robbery apply to property saved from a shipwreck, fire, or collapse, or washed ashore, distinguishing these cases based on the lapse of time and the perpetrator's awareness from plundering during the shipwreck itself.

[GAIUS libro uicensimo primo ad edictum prouinciale. ] §47.9.5.prSi quis ex naufragio uel ex incendio ruinaue seruatam rem et alio loco positam subtraxerit aut rapuerit, furti scilicet aut alias ui bonorum raptorum iudicio tenetur, maxime si non intellegebat ex naufragio uel incendio ruinaue eam esse.
[GAIUS, on the Provincial Edict, book twenty-one.] If anyone should steal or plunder a thing that has been saved from a shipwreck, fire, or collapse, and placed in another location, he is, of course, liable to an action for theft or, as the case may be, for property taken by force, especially if he did not know that it was from a shipwreck, fire, or collapse.
iacentem quoque rem ex naufragio, quae fluctibus expulsa sit, si quis abstulerit, plerique idem putant.
Most authorities hold the same view if anyone should carry away a thing lying on the ground from a shipwreck, which has been cast up by the waves.
quod ita uerum est, si aliquod tempus post naufragium intercesserit: alioquin si in ipso naufragii tempore id acciderit, nihil interest, utrum ex ipso mari quisque rapiat an ex naufragiis an ex litore.
This is true only if some time has elapsed after the shipwreck; otherwise, if it happened at the very time of the shipwreck, it makes no difference whether a person plunders from the sea itself, from the shipwrecks, or from the shore.
de eo quoque, quod ex rate naue expugnata raptum sit, eandem interpretationem adhibere debemus.
We must apply the same interpretation also to that which has been plundered from a raft or ship that has been captured.

Notes

  1. §47.9.5.prfurti ... aut ... ui bonorum raptorum iudicio tenetur — The noun iudicio (action, trial) is an ablative of instrument or cause, constructionally bound with the passive verb tenetur (is held, is liable). The genitive phrases furti (of theft) and ui bonorum raptorum (of goods taken by force) modify iudicio as genitives of charge or crime, specifying the type of action to which the offender is liable.
  2. §47.9.5.prquod ita uerum est, si — The correlative construction ita ... si is used to restrictively emphasize the following conditional clause (introduced by si), meaning "only if" or "only on the condition that." Here, it establishes that the general rules of theft apply only when a certain amount of time has passed after the shipwreck, contrasting with the immediate aftermath where specialized, harsher liabilities arise.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §47.9.5.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:47.9.5.pr

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