“It’s always better when we’re together.” — Jack Johnson
Good morning everyone and welcome to Wednesday’s Morning Open Thread.
Morning Open Thread is a daily, copyrighted post from a host of editors and guest writers. We support our community, invite and share ideas, and encourage thoughtful, respectful dialogue in an open forum.
I’ve come to think of this post as one where you come for the music and stay for the conversation—so feel free to drop a note. The diarist gets to sleep in if she so desires and can show up long after the post is published. So you know, it's a feature, not a bug.
Join us, please.
What a beautiful day it is so far—though I have to add that the sun is yet to rise, the blistering heat is still several hours off, and work doesn’t start for another hour, so my estimation is subject to reevaluation. The best news on the horizon for us on the gulf coast is that rain is predicted starting tomorrow and running for the most part of the next 10 days. We need it. The afternoon downpours sharpen the edge of humidity, but they also clear the dust that has settled everywhere and gives a bit of relief to the plants that are suffering from so little rain over the last couple weeks. We live in a semi-tropical environment and to sustain the indigenous plants (and some of the animals) we need water on a regular basis.
Water is such a ubiquitous element here that it has been a part of our law from the beginning of this state’s history and the development of the Civil Codes (based on the Napoleonic Codes of France, which were based on the Castilian Siete Partidas, which themselves were based on Justinian’s Roman Codes and Islamic Law). We have what’s called “predial servitudes,” that are actual rights established for or on behalf of incorporeal immovables (actual stuff that is land or a permanent part of land). In fact, Civil Code Article 966 gives the following examples of predial servitudes:
Rights of support, projection, drip, drain, or of preventing drain, those of view, of light, or of preventing view or light from being obstructed, of raising buildings or walls, or of preventing them from being raised, of passage, of drawing water, of aqueduct, of watering animals, and of pasturage.
While the whole concept might be a bit foreign to most people, this is the perfect example of laws that are both reasonable and based on the proposition that people have to get along (and seek compromise) in order to live in an ordered society. Like most rights, they carry with them an obligation and the recognition that the extent of a particular right is susceptible to competing rights. While that may sound all philosophical or overly legal, the rain might make it clear.
We, in Louisiana, have a “right of drip,” where a neighbor can’t stop us from allowing water to flow off our land even if it means that water will cross our neighbor’s land; concomitantly, we have a duty to prevent our roof lines from dripping directly onto a neighbor’s property. Similarly, we have a right to build walls for our own privacy, but only insofar as the height doesn’t significantly prevent our neighbor from enjoying the sky (her competing right of view).
Individual rights that are interpreted and understood in the context of the competing rights of our neighbors. What a concept, and one that the men and women who first formed this country were very well aware. And I guess this has been your daily taste of Louisiana’s particular legal spice. On to some music that’s more uplifting than bluesy.
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Be well, be kind, and appreciate the love you have in your life.
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Grab your coffee or tea and join us, please.
What's on your mind this morning?
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