Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Other Rights over Property

to own the other (“servient”) one at that time. Suppose you own a farm with the servitude right to draw water from the spring on my (next-door) farm. Then, suppose that we sell the farms to our respective sisters. Your sister then automati cally acquires the right to get her water from my sister’s farm (while neither you nor I keep any rights). There are a great many specific servitudes – for example, passage over anoth er’s property, drawing water, allowing/preventing dripping or smoke from another’s building, blocking/allowing light. At least some details could be set individually (say, the time or mode in which the rights could be used), and it is possible that entirely new servitudes could be created as long as they fit the general rules [24] . Servitudes were usually created by agreement between the two owners, though the agreement had to be validated by appropriate ritual. This commonly took place at the time of a sale (with the old owner retaining certain rights over a part of the property he was selling). It might also commonly be done at times when a formerly unitary property was divided, such as when joint heirs wished to separate their shares of that prop erty. Another way to gain a servitude was simply to assert and use the right for a sufficiently long time. This was an unusual method of acquiring rights in Roman law, but it is paralleled in common law by the law of so-called easements. This pos sibility existed in earlier and later periods (with some techni cal differences) but not for some period in between, perhaps roughly the first two centuries bc. When it did exist, a prop erty owner might specify that use was with his permission

147