Title 43 — Public LandsRelease 119-73not60

§1313 Exceptions From Operation of Section 1311 of This Title

Title 43 › Chapter 29— SUBMERGED LANDS › Subchapter II— LANDS BENEATH NAVIGABLE WATERS WITHIN STATE BOUNDARIES › § 1313

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

The rule in the earlier section does not apply to certain lands, rights, and U.S.-built structures. That includes land the United States owns or legally holds — land it got from a state or a person, land kept or given when a state joined the Union, land bought or taken by legal process (eminent domain), gifts, land the U.S. filled or reclaimed, and land it actually occupies claiming ownership. It also covers land under navigable water held for tribes or individual Native Americans and structures the United States built while using its power over navigation.

Full Legal Text

Title 43, §1313

Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

There is excepted from the operation of section 1311 of this title—

(a)all tracts or parcels of land together with all accretions thereto, resources therein, or improvements thereon, title to which has been lawfully and expressly acquired by the United States from any State or from any person in whom title had vested under the law of the State or of the United States, and all lands which the United States lawfully holds under the law of the State; all lands expressly retained by or ceded to the United States when the State entered the Union (otherwise than by a general retention or cession of lands underlying the marginal sea); all lands acquired by the United States by eminent domain proceedings, purchase, cession, gift, or otherwise in a proprietary capacity; all lands filled in, built up, or otherwise reclaimed by the United States for its own use; and any rights the United States has in lands presently and actually occupied by the United States under claim of right;

(b)such lands beneath navigable waters held, or any interest in which is held by the United States for the benefit of any tribe, band, or group of Indians or for individual Indians; and

(c)all structures and improvements constructed by the United States in the exercise of its navigational servitude.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

43 U.S.C. § 1313

Title 43 — Public Lands

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60