Definition
A civil law servitude granting the holder the right to convey water across or through the land of another by means of pipes, channels, or conduits. The right is predicated on a dominant estate's need to transport water and burdens the servient estate with tolerating the physical infrastructure necessary to do so. It is a praedial servitude — one that attaches to land rather than to a person — meaning the right passes with ownership of the benefited property and does not depend on the identity of the individual owner.
AQUE DUCTUS is distinct from the right to draw or collect water (aquae haustus); it concerns transit of water, not its source or extraction.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Aqueduct" — a channel, conduit, or artificial waterway constructed to carry water from a source to a distribution point; also used for bridge-like structures carrying water across valleys.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Aqueduct" — a conductor, conduit, or artificial channel for conveying water, especially one built of masonry and of considerable size; sometimes applied to a pipeline or siphon.
The common word "aqueduct" evokes large-scale public infrastructure — Roman stone arches, municipal water systems. The legal term AQUE DUCTUS describes a private property right, not a structure. A researcher encountering this term in historical legal sources should not read it as referring to a physical aqueduct but to the juridical entitlement to impose a water-carrying easement on another's land.
Core Elements
The servitude requires: (1) a dominant tenement — the land benefited by the water conveyance; (2) a servient tenement — the land burdened by the passage of pipes or conduits; (3) a lawful basis of creation, whether by grant, prescription, or operation of law; and (4) actual use by means of pipes or artificial conduits, distinguishing it from a natural watercourse right or riparian claim.
Why It Matters in Research
AQUE DUCTUS is a term drawn from Roman civil law and surfaces primarily in legal materials influenced by the civil law tradition — Louisiana, Quebec, Scotland, South Africa, and historical Spanish and French colonial jurisdictions. Researchers working in common law jurisdictions will rarely encounter the term in its Latin form; the underlying concept is absorbed into easement doctrine under labels such as "right of way for water," "water easement," or "pipeline easement." When conducting research across mixed or civilian jurisdictions, conflating the civilian category with the common law easement framework can produce analytical errors, because civil law servitudes operate under different rules of creation, modification, and extinction than common law easements.
In historical American sources, the term may appear in treatises on riparian rights or irrigation law, particularly in contexts touching on Spanish or Mexican land grants in the American Southwest. These materials sometimes blend Roman-civilian terminology with American property concepts in ways that can obscure the doctrinal basis of a claimed right.
Because AQUE DUCTUS is a praedial servitude, it runs with the land. Researchers examining chain of title in civilian jurisdictions should check whether water conveyance rights were created as personal servitudes (usufruct-type) or praedial ones — the distinction controls transferability and survival upon sale of the burdened or benefited parcel.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary defines AQUE DUCTUS as "a servitude which consists in the right to carry water by means of pipes or conduits over or through the estate of another," citing the Digest (8.3.1), the Institutes (2.3), and Lalaure's treatise on servitudes. Bouvier's definition is functionally complete for its era and correctly situates the term in the Roman law of servitudes. It does not, however, address how the concept was received into American or mixed legal systems, nor does it distinguish AQUE DUCTUS from related water servitudes such as aquae haustus (right to draw water) or iter aquae (a broader water-passage right sometimes used synonymously). Researchers should treat Bouvier's entry as a reliable doctrinal baseline but should not rely on it for jurisdictional application in American courts, where the term's operative force depends heavily on whether a given state recognizes civilian servitude categories.
Jurisdictional Note
The term retains doctrinal force in Louisiana, which operates under a civil law property regime, and in jurisdictions with significant Spanish or French legal heritage. In common law states, the substance of AQUE DUCTUS is recognized but the Latin terminology is generally abandoned in favor of easement language. International researchers should note that Scottish, South African, and Quebec law each has its own treatment of praedial servitudes that may diverge from the Roman original.