The sea, res communis omnium? dogma and reality from the jurists' standpoint

Abstract

In some Roman jurisprudential literature of pedagogical nature, the sea is classified as a res communis omnium, that is, as an extra-patrimonial asset. However, the sources show forms of exploitation of the sea that approximate it to the res publicae in pecunia populi, which raises a clear inconsistency between dogma and reality. This old doctrinal problem of the legal qualification of the sea is now focused from its origin, in the work of Aelius Marcianus. A new interpretive key that abounds in its raison d'être is seeked in this work..