Riparian
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
Relating to the banks of rivers. Riparian proprietors are those who own lands on the banks of rivers. Riparian rights are such rights as arise out of or are connected with or peculiar to banks of rivers; such as ownership of the soil under water, right to maintain landing-places, ownership of accretions, &c. States whose jurisdictions are bounded by rivers are sometimes called riparian states. For want of another word of like meaning, and etymologically more appropriate, riparian is used of banks of other waters than running streams; thus the term riparian rights is sometimes found where the general connection shows that rights incident to the banks of a lake, or to the sea-shore, are meant.