"De l’audace, encore de l’audace,
et toujours de l’audace."
Questions
and answers regarding river preservation
Q: But what about the "right to wharf out?"
A:
This is where we need some legislative action to get rid of an archaic
law that made sense in its time but clearly does not now. Years back,
pretty much the only people who lived on the water were people who
made their living from it, such as fishermen. They needed to be able
to build docks to make a living. Now that people live on the water
for pleasure rather than business, it makes no sense to put individuals'
"rights" above the greater good of the community by having
this law around. Besides, this "right" has been found in
many legal decisions to be subsidiary to the State's interests. Follow
this link to see a scholarly discussion of this subject, in which
our own Connecticut DEP participated.
Furthermore,
common-law "rights" in other areas have evolved as times
changed. Consider the beloved New England Town Green (still called
"The Common" in many towns): Two hundred years ago, people
grazed their cattle on and buried their dead under the Green. They'd
get arrested for doing either nowadays. And nobody would argue that
if someone's house is next to the Green, they should have a "right"
to build a deck that extended into the common land.
