Negotiating the Maze: Tracing Historical Title Claims in Spanish Land Grants and Swamp and Overflowed Lands Act

This article discusses the treatment of submerged sovereignty lands transferred to the United States through quitclaim transactions; states acquiring such lands were instructed that they be used to benefit the public interest and, as such, transfer was prohibited unless it would advance such interests. For comparison, the article also traces the acquisition and treatment of those lands which Florida took title to upon statehood as swamp and overflowed lands to be used, conversely, for purposes of internal improvement. To distinguish between the treatment of the lands acquired through the different methods, the article traces the various state and federal legislative acts enacted to deal with both. The ultimate goal of the authors in this article is to address the difficultly in properly evaluating the validity of public and private claims to submerged sovereignty lands and swamp and overflowed lands that arise as a result of the differing treatments.