Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos
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Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos (in English, for whomsoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to the sky and down to the depths) is a Roman legal principle of property law that was passed down to common law and civil law systems. As the name describes, the principle is that a person who owns a particular piece of land owns everything above and below it as well. Consequently, the owner could prosecute trespass against people who violated the border but never actually touched the soil. As with any other property rights, the owner can sell or lease it to others, or it may be taken or regulated by the State.
For example, suppose three people owned neighboring plots of land. The owners of the plots on the ends want to build a bridge over the center plot connecting their two properties. Even though the bridge would never touch the soil of the owner in the middle, the principle of cuius est solum would allow the middle owner to stop its construction or demand payment for the right to do so.
By the same principle, a person who wants to mine under somebody's land would have to get permission from the owner to do so, even if the mine entrance was on neighboring land.
The phrase was first coined by Accursius of Bologna in the 13th Century.
The principle is subject to so many qualifications that it has become virtually worthless as a statement of contemporary laws. In Bernstein of Leigh (baron)v Skyviews and General Ltd (1978) Griffiths dismissed the maxim as merely 'a colourful phrase.'
