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 Rh CLASSIFICATION OF THINGS 115 enjoyed by all members of the community for navigation or fishing.^ Amongst public rivers the Roman-Dutch Law, following the feudal law, distinguished further between (1) navigable rivers and their tributaries, (2) other public rivers.^ The former class fell under the head of regalia,^ with the result that fishing in navigable rivers Regalia. and other inland navigable waters was not permitted without licence from Government.* Apart from any statutory provision this would seem to form part of the Roman-Dutch common law, and as such to be presump- tively still in force. It does not appear that fishing in public non-navigable rivers is subject to the same restric- tion. Whatever has been said above as to the rights of the public in public rivers must be understood subject to the qualification that no person may exercise his right improperly to the public detriment. Accordingly an interdict lies to prohibit interference with navigation or the fiow of the stream.^ The phrase res nuUius is used in the Civil Law in three Res distinct senses : * ( 1 ) Res communes are said to be res nuUms i^'^i'i^^- and humani juris. (2) Sacred, religious, and sanctioned things (churches, graveyards, city walls) are res nullius and Voet, 1. 8. 8. ^ This distinction appears already in the Roman Law in connexion with the topic of leading water. If the public stream was navigable, or a tributary of navigable waters it was not permitted to lead water from it. But from other public waters in the absence of statutory prohibition water might be led. Dig. 43. 12. 2 ; Voet, 1. 8. 8-9 {ad fin.). ^ Lib. Feud. II. 56; Gudelin. dejure novissimo, 5. 3. 5; Groen. deleg. air. ad Inst. 2. 1. 2 ; Vinnius ad Inst. 2. 1. 2, sec. 3 ; Gr. 2. 1. 25-7 ; Huber, Heedensdaegse Rechtsgeleertheyt, 2. 1. 17-19 ; Voet, 1. 8. 9 {ad fin.) ; 49. 14. 3 ; Heineccius, Elem. Jur. Civ. ad Inst., sees. 325 and 328; Elem. Jur. German., lib. ii, tit. 1, sec. 16; Leyser, Medi- tationes ad Pandedas, vol. i, p. 255 ; Stockmans, Decis. Brabant. no. 85 ; Zypaeus, Notitia Jur. Belg., lib. x, sec. de jure fisci ; Bort, Tractaet van de Domeynen van Hollandt, Werken, deel 5 ; Van Zurck, Codex Batamis, sub voce Domeinen, sec. 6, n. 3 ; Sententien en Gewezen Zaken van den Hoogen en Provincialen Baad, nos. 5 and 166 ; Schomaker, Consilia et Besponsa Juris, vol. v, cons. Ivii ; Schrassert, Consultatien, Advysen en Advertissementen, vol. iii, cons, cxxviii. allowed. Gr. 2. I. 28. ^ Dig. 43, tits. 12 and 13. » See Kotz6's Van Leeuwen, vol. i, p. 147 (translator's note).
 * Gr. 2. 1. 25-7 ; Van Leeuwen, 2. 1. 13 ; but rod-fishing was