The Definition Of Law: Finder Keepers And Losers Weepers

Introduction Finders keepers, losers weepers is a childhood adage that means whatever is found on the school playground can be kept but there is no principle of law that supports an individual is entitled to keep something he finds, while the original owner bears the loss. The premise when something is lost by one individual and found by another has been expressed in various ways over the centuries. The law of lost and found is rooted in ancient Roman laws and the concept of finders keepers derived from the work of the second century jurist Gaius, who suggested that unowned property (res nullius) became “the property of the first taker.” The Roman Emperor Justinian further proposed property that was intentionally abandoned by its owner (res derelicta) turned into nobody's property (res nullius) and could thereafter be claimed by any individual who found it (occupatio).

Adverse possession is a method by which a person who acquires another individual's personal property for a specified period of time and may gain title to that property. The concept of adverse possession has been in existence for more than five thousand years and is used in the same manner today as it was under the reign of Hammurabi, who established the eminence of Babylon, during the seventeenth century. “If a man leaves his house, garden, and field … and someone else takes possession of it for three years...he who has taken possession of it shall continue to use