Legal ‘vacant land’ meant land lacking any Christian claimant, not unoccupied land

Evidence

The lands were deemed “vacant” because the lands were without any Christian owner [dominator], and without any assertion of a right of Christian domination. The term “vacant” in this context also relates to the Latin phrase “vacantia bona” in English Common Law, which is defined as “Goods which no one claimed and which by the law of nature belonged to the first [Christian] occupant or finder.” — Doctrine of Discovery Project, The Marshall Trilogy, 29

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that ‘vacant’ in Marshall’s usage is a technical definition from vacantia bona, entirely divorced from physical occupancy.
• DEEPTHINKING: The whole doctrine of discovery hangs on a word that reverses its ordinary meaning — reframing ‘vacant’ as a claim about who counts as a person/owner condenses the entire logic of colonial property.
• ADDENDUM: Direct supporting material for the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ thesis about how legal language encodes who counts as full personhood.