NULLIUS IN BONIS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

NULLIUS IN BONISAuthored

The Law Mind • 822 words

Definition

Latin: "among the property of no one." A phrase designating things that do not belong to any private person and therefore cannot be the subject of private ownership. Property characterized as nullius in bonis exists outside the ordinary system of private title — it is not ownerless in the sense of being abandoned, but rather categorically excluded from private appropriation by nature or law.

The concept operates as a status designation rather than a gap in ownership. Things falling within this category include wild animals in their natural state (ferae naturae), the open sea, navigable waters held for public use, air, and, historically, res sacrae (things dedicated to sacred or religious purposes) and res publicae (things belonging to the public at large). Until reduced to possession or otherwise brought within the framework of private law, such things remain incapable of being owned, conveyed, stolen, or encumbered.

Common Confusion

NULLIUS IN BONIS should not be confused with res nullius, though the two concepts are closely related and often used interchangeably in older sources. Res nullius technically refers to a thing that belongs to no one but is capable of being acquired through first possession — such as a wild animal captured on public land. Nullius in bonis emphasizes the status of things that are not merely unowned but are, by their character or legal classification, outside private ownership altogether. The practical distinction matters: res nullius can be acquired; things properly described as nullius in bonis may be permanently beyond private appropriation. Historical sources do not always observe this distinction carefully, and researchers should treat the terms as near-synonyms in pre-20th-century texts while remaining alert to context.

Why It Matters in Research

This phrase appears in foundational property law discussions but is rarely the subject of a standalone case or statute. Researchers are most likely to encounter it in treatises on the law of property, natural resources, and public rights rather than in reported decisions.

Several research traps apply. First, Bouvier's entry for nullius in bonis in the available corpus appears to have been captured mid-article and relates to nuncupative wills — an indexing or scanning artifact, not a substantive connection. Researchers should not draw any link between the phrase and testamentary law based on that passage.

Second, the phrase functions as a threshold concept in historical common law property analysis. Understanding it is essential to tracing how courts treated wild game, fisheries, riparian rights, and public trust resources before the development of modern regulatory frameworks. Arguments about state ownership of wildlife, public trust doctrine, and the limits of private property in navigable waters all draw on the underlying logic of nullius in bonis.

Third, the concept has gained renewed relevance in scholarship addressing environmental law, atmospheric rights, and the legal status of the global commons. Researchers working in those areas should treat historical dictionary treatments of nullius in bonis as a doctrinal starting point, not an endpoint — the modern literature has substantially developed the framework.

Finally, the phrase appears in Roman law sources, particularly the Digest (Dig. 1.8.1), and researchers consulting civil law materials will encounter it in that context. The Roman and common law treatments are substantially aligned but not identical, and conflation can produce anachronistic readings in historical research.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (both editions) define the phrase concisely as "property of no person," emphasizing the Latin idiom without elaborating on its practical legal consequences. This brevity is characteristic of Black's treatment of foundational Latin maxims in its early editions — the entry flags the concept but does not explain its doctrinal operation.

Burrill's offers the most useful historical gloss, translating the phrase as "among the property of no person; not a subject of private property" and cross-referencing Digest 1.8.1 and the companion entry "In nullius bonis." Burrill's identification of the Roman law source is the most substantively informative element across the historical dictionary sources and points researchers toward civil law foundational texts.

The Bouvier's passage captured in the source material does not address nullius in bonis directly; it appears to be extracted from an unrelated entry. Researchers should consult a full edition of Bouvier's directly for any substantive treatment.

Across the historical dictionaries, there is agreement on the core meaning but no serious engagement with how courts applied the concept in practice. Researchers needing operational legal analysis must go beyond these sources to treatises such as Blackstone's Commentaries (Book II), Kent's Commentaries on American Law, and historical works on the law of property and public rights.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Property (Public and Private); Wild Animals and the Law of Capture; Public Trust Doctrine

NULLIUS IN BONISmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

property of no person. Among the

NULLIUS IN BONISmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

property of no person. Lat. Among the

NULLIUS IN BONISmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

ment. Such wills are subject to manifest abuses, and by stat. 1. Vict. c. 26, §§ 9, 11 (preceded by 1 Will. IV. c. 20), the privi- lege is confined to soldiers in actual service, and sailors at sea, and extends only to per- sonal estate. Similar provisions have been enacted in Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Vir- ginia, and Montana. In Georgia, the stat- ute embraces both real and personal prop- erty. In California and the Dakotas, the decedent must have been in actual military service, or at sea, and in immediate fear of death. In the other states, nuncupative wills by persons in extremis are still rec- ognized, subject to restrictions as to amount of property bequeathed, similar to those of the English statute of frauds. The following principles, among others, are well established: Statutes relating to nuncupative wills are strictly construed; 2 Phillim. 194; 78 III. 287; 47 Pa. 31:33 Miss. 629. The testator must be in ex- tremis, overtaken by violent sickness, in contemplation of death, and without time to make a written will; 1 Addams 389; 20 Johns. 502; 6 W. & S. 184; 10 Gratt. 548; 84 Ga. 619; but see 2 Ala N. S. 242; 82 111. 50; the deceased must have clearly inti- mated by word or sign to those present that he intended to make the will; 9 B. Monr. 553; 27 Ill. 247; 26 N. H. 372: 14 La. Ann. 729: 36 Md. 630; 2 Greenl. 298; 63 111. 455; 78 id. 287; 46 Ia. 694; 63 N. C. 637; testamentary capacity must be most clearly proved; 12 Gill & J. 192; 78 III. 287. In actual military service," is held to mean during warfare, and while on an expedi- tion; 3 Curt. 531; 53 Me. 561; but this rule has been somewhat freely treated; 39 Vt. 498; 1 Abb. Pr. U. S. 112. See 53 Me. 561. Sailors must be serving on shipboard: 2 Curt. 339; 2 R. I. 133. The term mariner applies to every one in the naval or mer- cantile service; 4 Bradf. 154. See note to Sykes v. Svkes, 20 Am. Dec. 44: 24 Atl. Rep. 370. See MILITARY TESTAMENT. NUNDINE (Law Lat.). In Civil and Old English Law. Fair or fairs. Dion. Halicarnass. lib. 2, p. 98; Law Fr. & Lat. Dict. Hence Nundination, traffic at fairs. NUNQUAM INDEBITATUS (Lat. never indebted). In Pleading. A plea to an action of indebitatus assumpsit, by which the defendant asserts that he is not indebted to the plaintiff. McKelv. Pl. 31; 6 C. & P. 545; 1 M. & W. 542; 1 Q. B. 77. In England, this plea has been substi- tuted for nil debet, q. v., as the general issue in debt on a simple contract. NUNTIUS, NUNCIUS. In Old English Practice. One who made ex- cuse for absence of one summoned. An apparitor, beadle, or sergeant. Cowel. A messenger or legate: e. g. pope's nuncio. Jacob, L. Dict. Essoniator was sometimes wrongly used for nuntius in the first sense. Bracton, fol. 345, § 2. NUPER OBIIT (Lat. he or she lately died). In Practice. The name of a writ which in the English law lay for a sister coheiress dispossessed by her coparcener of lands and tenements whereof their father, brother, or any common ancestor died seized of an estate in fee-simple. Fitzh. Ν. Β. 197. Abolished in 1833. NUPTIAE (Lat.). Marriage; nup- tials; the union of man and woman.

nullius in bonisnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

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No one's property.

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