CHAPTER XVI 



LEGAL REGULATIONS OF ROME AS REGARDS FISHING 



Previous instances of taking fish belonging to another have 

 so far only been attended by divine or superhuman punish- 

 ment. I venture now a few sentences on what were the Roman 

 (I have discovered no Greek) legal regulations — for there does 

 not appear to have existed at Rome any special law on Fishing — 

 and how the rights of fisheries and fishers were protected. 



From the evidence available it is clear — 



(i) That among Res Nullius, or things belonging to no 

 one, were fish and wild animals in a state of nature. The 

 Digest, 41. I. I, lays down that " omnia animalia, quae terra, 

 mari, caelo capiuntur, id est ferae bestiae, volucres, et pisces, 

 capientum hunt." 



(2) That they became the property of the person who first 

 " reduces them into possession," i.e. captures them. 



(3) That the sea and public rivers were not capable of 

 individual ownership. 



(4) That no citizen could be prevented from fishing in the 

 sea and such rivers by any person. To this rule there are 

 several exceptions ; for instance, {a) a cove of the sea bordering 

 on a man's land — perhaps if enclosed with stakes, etc. — could 

 be exclusively occupied for fishing (Digest, 47. 10, ss. 13 and 14) ; 

 (6) a right of fishing in a recess or backwater of a public river 

 could be acquired by prescription, and would then be protected 

 by a possessory Interdict against any one who tried to fish 

 this water (Ibid., 44. 3. 7). 



It is hard to define precisely what constituted a public 

 river and what a private river. Under the term " public " 

 came all rivers of any size, not merely those that were tidal. 



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