Re: Who ownes...
Cyracuz wrote:How far down does right of property extend?
In Roman law, the maxim of "
Cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad coelum et ad inferos" (To whomsoever the soil belongs, he owns also to the sky and to the depths) applies. In other words, the owner of a piece of land also owns a column of earth directly below the land and a column of air directly above it. Anglo-American jurisprudence has largely adopted the "
ad inferos" part of the rule, but has strongly modified the "
ad coelum" part of it. Air rights, for all practical purposes, only extend as far as a building could be built: the rest of the sky belongs to the people in common (or, in real terms, to the government). A homeowner, in other words, cannot
declare a no-fly zone over his house.
Cyracuz wrote:Who ownes the oil?
In Anglo-American jurisprudence, a landowner owns all the minerals under his land. Oil, because it can migrate (technically, it is "fugacious"), is subject to special rules. In effect, oil is treated like a wild animal: whoever "captures" the oil first gets to own it (for an example of this principle in practice,
click here).