If you start looking at the Roman law in various
kinds of areas, for example in its relationship
to property, property held in common, property
which was private, the Romans essentially
had the right classification more or less
for the right reason.
They did not start from an abstract theory
about what property rights were or how it
is that they were supposed to be organized.
What they did is they started with a fundamental
distinction between common property and private
property.
Developed very briefly the attributes of common
property, and then proceeded to talk about
public property.
And it's extremely important to understand
this particular arrangement because what it
does is it essentially gives a view of property
rights which is wholly inconsistent with the
modern views of property rights that developed
through people like John Locke, James Madison,
and so forth who overstate the importance
of private property and systematically understate
the importance of common property.
So common property has the common feature.
You're in a state of nature.
So there's no state, and then there are certain
forms of property to which everybody has access
and from which nobody can be excluded.
And that means in effect that if something
is open to common access, then nobody by unilateral
action can reduce it to his own private property.
As for example by damming up a river, and
claiming all the water that is poured into
barrels as though it were his own.
So that's the res commun.
Now on the other side, you have something
which is called res nullius, which literally
means the things that are owned by nobody.
And these things have exactly the opposite
rules.
If somebody engages in an act of occupation,
taking possession in a way that indicates
to the rest of the world that they're excluded
from the thing in question, that thing becomes
his or hers in perpetuity solely and exclusively
and they're entitled to either develop it
or to sell it in one form or another.
if you go to Justinian ,what you're immediately
told is that common property includes the
water, the oceans, the rivers, the air, and
consequently the seashore.
These are things which are open to all that
nobody can privatize.
And then if you go a little bit further in
Justinian and in Gaius, what they do is they
announce that res nullius includes land, it
includes wild animals, fish, birds, game.
And it also includes sort of random things
that you find on the seashore like a sea shell
or something of that.
And those are subject of the private regime.
