|
Unfortunatley, I have the Cliff Claven gene that compells me to read such things ;) I particularly like the explanation that the common law rule comes from civil law system, and the civil law rule comes from a common law system. At any rate, I concur with the Iowa Supreme Court -- they were correct in interpreting that under the existing Common Law rule the body of water was not navigable, and thus property ownership extends heaven to hell. I don't agree with the result -- that a person who owns lake bed can decide to fence off that part of the lake or drain the lake to access their lake bed. But it's not upto the Courts to change the prevailing legal precedent. It is, rather, well within the powers of the Iowa state legislature if they so chose to adopt a Civil Law (god, head is spinning) model that says even in a lake with no commercial use, if it can float a boat you can use it for navigation & recreation. Maybe with a modification of minimum acreages and prohibition with 100' of shoreline were posted or something like that, and that only adjoining property owners have such rights.
| 
