Editing Homestead principle (section)

=== Common law ===
[[File:Earth-crust-cutaway-english.svg|thumb|Under the [[ad coelum]] doctrine land ownership extends in a [[Cone (geometry)|cone]] from the [[Inner core|Earth's core]] up to the [[exosphere]]]]
[[Common law]] provides the ''[[ad coelum]]'' ("to the sky") [[Legal doctrine|doctrine]] by which [[landowner]]s own everything below and above the land, up to the sky and below the earth to its core, with the exception of volatile minerals such as [[natural gas]]. The rules governing what constitutes [[homesteading]] were not specified by common law but by the local [[statutory law]]. Common law also recognizes the concept of [[adverse possession]] ("squatters' rights").<ref name=West'sEncAmLaw-2ed-homesteading/> [[Murray Rothbard]] criticized this doctrine as incompatible with his own homestead principle as a literal application prevent aircraft from traveling over someone's land,{{efn|name=hight-limits-note}} further arguing:
:But is the practical problem of aviation the only thing wrong with the ad coelum rule? Using the homesteading principle, the ad coelum rule never made any sense, and is therefore overdue in the dustbin of legal history. If one homesteads and uses the soil, in what sense is he also using all the sky above him up into heaven? Clearly, he isn't.<ref name=Rothbard-1982/>

So long as the aircraft did not damage or disturb the land, the owner would not have a claim.{{efn|name=hight-limits-note}} By the same principle, ownership of mineral and water resources on or under the land would also require homesteading, otherwise being left unowned.