If the rule of capture may not be relevant for

-- If the rule of capture may not be relevant for animals, it is for oil and gas
x. Libel = In admiralty law, a libel is the counterpart to a lawsuit and the
libellant the counterpart to the P.
xi. Rules of Capture and Wild Animals
1. A trespasser who captures a wild animal on the land of another might
still have no rights to the animal as against the landowner, even though
the landowner never had actual physical possession or control and
even though the trespasser does
a. The court may say that the landowner had “constructive”
possession of the animal
b. ( Examples on page 36)
xii. Constructive possession = denotes possession that has the same effect in law
as actual possession although it is not actual possession in fact.
1. The owners of land w/ unextracted oil, gas, or other minerals lying
beneath its surface might not be in actual possession of those minerals,
but they are often said to be in prior, constructive possession of
them…hence, the legal maxim is that whoever owns the surface, also
owns to the depths of the earth.
xiii. Groundwater - whoever 1st captured the water was really the owner
1. 2day, groundwater extraction is commonly governed by the legislative
and administrative programs
2. there is a right to water, subject to the rights of everyone else.
a. B/c ownership of wild animals had long been settled in terms
of the rule of capture, the courts reasoned that ownership of oil
and gas should be determined in the same manner.
i. Animals belong to the owner of the land, and are part of
it, so long as they are on or in it, and are subject to his
control; but when they escape, and go into another lans,
or come under another’s control, the title of the former
owner is gone. Possession of land, therefore, is not
necessarily possession of the gas. – If an adjoining, or
even a distant, owner, drills his land, and taps your gas,
so that it comes into his well and under his control, it is
no longer yours, but his.
3. Water rights in Fl . – Under American rule, whoever has R use to it,
but since no proportion – water rights is highly regulated
a. but there is prior appropriation and riparium rights
xiv. Externality - a social or monetary consequence or side effect of one’s
economic activity, causing another to benefit without paying or to suffer
without compensation
1. Externalities v. Internal costs
6

a. --(like kids, buying cd’s –that’s his internal cost, but w/ parents
time, gas etc. that’s even more (that is the external cost)
b. --consider who is taking the burden – don’t just worry about
the internal costs, but also the external
d. Creation
i. Once one designs something that is considered property, to is entitled to it or
to increases? (how to protect property rights)
Remember  The notion that the person who creates property also owns it may seem
elementary, but the scope of such ownership is not always clear. Apart from statutes that
specifically protect creators’ rights, such as copyright, trademark, and patent statutes, a creator’s
ownership rights may be uncertain. For example, an artist’s painting or a secret food formula is