Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §8.2.4.pr

Servitudes of Light and Prohibition against Building Higher

Passage 1372 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus explains the substance of the rights under a servitude of lights, distinguishing between the simple receipt of light by a neighbor and the prohibition against obstructing light, which deprives the neighbor of the right to build higher against one's will.

[PAULUS libro secundo institutionum. ] §8.2.4.prLuminum in seruitute constituta id adquisitum uidetur, ut uicinus lumina nostra excipiat: cum autem seruitus imponitur, ne luminibus officiatur, hoc maxime adepti uidemur, ne ius sit uicino inuitis nobis altius aedificare atque ita minuere lumina nostrorum aedificiorum.
[PAULUS in the second book of Institutes.] When a servitude of lights is established, it seems to have been acquired that the neighbor receives our lights: but when a servitude is imposed lest the lights be obstructed, we seem to have acquired this especially, that the neighbor has no right to build higher against our will and thus to diminish the lights of our buildings.

Notes

  1. §8.2.4.prinuitis nobis — An ablative absolute consisting of the pronoun nobis ('us') and the adjective inuitis ('unwilling'), expressing the condition 'against our will' or 'without our consent'.
  2. §8.2.4.prne luminibus officiatur — An impersonal passive construction of the intransitive verb officere ('to obstruct'), which governs the dative. The original dative luminibus ('to the lights') is retained, meaning 'lest the lights be obstructed'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §8.2.4.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:8.2.4.pr

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