Acquisition by Capture Flashcards
What is the rule if an animal is shot on private land?
Ratione soli: If shot on the land, belongs to the owner of that land
In Virginia, can a hunter be sued for being on private land?
If in hot pursuit, there is no trespass
What is the rule for acquisition by capture on common land?
For ferae naturae, property is acquired by occupancy. Occupancy is established by actions that manifest unequivocal intention of appropriating email for individual use, depriving it of its liberty and bringing it within certain control (Actual bodily seizure is not dispensable)
What is the rule on unfair competition and acquisition by capture?
Unfair competition that interferes with the instrument thwarts the instrumental end and is not allowed (Fair competition should be encouraged)
If you capture an animal (wild and domesticated) and it escapes, do you have ownership?
Wild: No, Domesticated: Yes
What is the rule of increase?
If animals from two differently owned herds mate, the off-spring belongs in the herd of its mother
Exception: Swans, who mate for life
What does ad coleur mean?
A property owner owns from hell to the heavens
What is the rule for fugitive resources? What is the problem with this rule?
Occupany: Treated like a wild animal
This creates the incentive to drill as inefficiently and fast as you can
As a response in SW states, owners “unitize” fugitive resources by combining interest and dividing production (violates exclusivity)
What is the rule for reinjection of fugitive resources?
Once oil is taken out and put back into a well, the rule of capture could apply again
But wells are a cheap and natural storage area for excess oil
In Kentucky, ownership of reinjected oil remains intact
This incentivizes a race to inject first so they can control the whole reservoir
What are the three key instrumental ends for acquisition by capture?
Certainty in the rule, deferring to local custom, encouraging competition
What are the cons for certainty as an instrumental end?
Can interfere with other instrumental ends, especially if they change
Stops the court from departing from a more certain rule when it may be fair to do so
What are the cons for deferring to local custom?
Not internalizing costs to society, creating externalities
Possibly may make an empirical assumption that not deferring to custom will support an undesirable instrumental end (Ghen v. Rich, Massachussetts, 1881)
Wrong assumptions are an error cost of adjudication
