Ratione soli is a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 phrase meaning "according to the soil". In property law

Property law

Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property and in personal property, within the common law legal system. In the civil law system, there is a division between movable and immovable property...

, it is a justification for assigning property rights to landowners over resources found on their own land.

In Pierson v. Post

Pierson v. Post

Pierson v. Post, 3 Cai. R. 175, 2 Am. Dec. 264 , is a Supreme Court of New York case about a disagreement over a dead fox that serves as an important cornerstone in American legal education.- Background :...

, future Vice President of the United States Daniel Tompkins wrote for the majority opinion, "most of the cases which have occurred in England, relating to property in wild animals, have either been discussed and decided upon the principles of their positive statue regulations, or have arisen between the huntsman and the owner of the land upon which beasts ferae naturae

Ferae naturae

Unowned property refers to tangible, physical things which are capable of being reduced to being property owned by an individual, but are not owned by anyone. Nearly every piece of land on the Earth is property and has an owner...

have been apprehended, the former claiming them by title of occupancy, and the latter ratione soli."