Definition
Spring tides are the tidal cycles in which the vertical difference between high and low water is at its greatest. They occur in the days immediately following a new moon or full moon, when the gravitational pulls of the sun and moon are aligned. The opposing phenomenon — tides of minimal range — are called neap tides.
In law, spring tides matter because they define boundary lines. Property law, admiralty law, and riparian rights frequently turn on the precise location of the high-water mark or low-water mark along tidal coastlines. Where that mark is drawn — and whether it is measured at ordinary tides, mean tides, or spring tides — determines the landward extent of public rights, crown or state ownership of the foreshore, and the seaward boundary of private upland grants.
Bouvier's definition is specifically English in orientation, and the spring-tide boundary rule has historically been more prominent in English common law than in American doctrine. Under the English rule, the foreshore — the strip of land between high and low water — was measured to the high-water mark of ordinary spring tides, vesting that zone in the Crown. American jurisdictions largely departed from this rule, generally adopting the mean high-water mark as the boundary line, though the specific standard varies by state.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of spring tide — tides of the greatest rise and fall, occurring at or near new and full moons.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Spring tides are described as tides occurring at new and full moon, when sun and moon act in conjunction, producing higher high waters and lower low waters than at other phases.
The common meaning and the legal meaning are largely congruent in their physical description, but a researcher using the term in a legal context must recognize that "spring tides" carries a specific legal significance as a boundary-marking reference. In ordinary speech, "spring tides" describes a natural phenomenon. In legal sources — particularly older English and colonial-era documents — it is a term of art that locates property lines and defines the scope of sovereign ownership of the foreshore. The physical definition and the legal function are distinct things.
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Why It Matters in Research
The primary research trap with spring tides is jurisdictional assumption. Bouvier flags the term as "English," and that flag is important. English common law drew the foreshore boundary at the high-water mark of ordinary spring tides. American courts, beginning in the early nineteenth century, generally rejected this standard in favor of the mean high-water line — a distinction with significant practical consequences for coastal property disputes.
A researcher working with colonial grants, early land patents, or English admiralty sources will encounter the spring-tide standard and must not assume it carries forward into American law. Conversely, a researcher working in a jurisdiction that expressly retained the English common law rule by statute or early precedent needs to check whether spring tides remain the operative standard.
The term appears in boundary descriptions, foreshore ownership cases, public trust doctrine litigation, and tidal easement disputes. It also surfaces in admiralty contexts where jurisdiction turns on whether waters are tidal, and in environmental and regulatory law where mean high-water or ordinary high-water marks define the reach of wetlands regulation.
The connection to future interests law (executory interests, springing and shifting) is purely phonetic — "springing" executory interests have no relationship to spring tides. Do not follow that cross-reference for tidal boundary research.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's entry is spare: spring tides are tides of greatest rise and fall, occurring after new and full moon. The entry is accurate in its physical description and honest in its geographic limitation, noting the English context. What Bouvier does not do is explain why the term appears in a law dictionary at all — its significance lies entirely in the boundary-marking function it performs in English real property law and admiralty, which Bouvier's entry leaves implicit.
Older English legal authorities, including Hale's De Jure Maris, are the foundational sources for the spring-tide foreshore rule. American treatise writers, including those dealing with riparian and littoral rights in the nineteenth century, took varying positions on whether the English spring-tide standard had been received into American common law, and the disagreement among treatise writers reflects genuine doctrinal divergence across states.
Historical sources using the term should be read with attention to whether the author is describing English law, a specific American jurisdiction, or offering a general statement that may not hold universally.
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Jurisdictional Note
England historically used the high-water mark of ordinary spring tides to bound Crown foreshore ownership. The United States majority rule follows the mean high-water mark, not the spring-tide mark, though some states — particularly those with early reception statutes or colonial charters tracking English law — may retain or reference the spring-tide standard. Researchers should verify the operative tidal boundary rule in the specific jurisdiction before treating either standard as universal.
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