Iceland review - 2016, Page 59

ICELAND REVIEW 57
RIGHT TO ROAM
shore are so important in human soci-
ety that they should be accessible to
the public to enjoy. It was codified in
the law books of Byzantine Emperor
Justinian the Great in the 6th century.
In British common law it translated
into the public trust doctrine, which
obliges the authorities to ensure public
access to these important amenities and
most Western European countries, as
well as the United States and Canada,
have laws to this effect, based on the
Byzantine law.
In many countries the right to roam
means the right to use certain paths or
ancient roads. In other places, especially
in Northern Europe, this right may not
be restricted to specific paths or trails.
In Iceland, where almost half the land is
in public ownership, the right to roam
has, from the very beginning, extend-
ed to privately owned land—with the
exception of cultivated farmland.
ROAMING BY JEEP
The right to roam has applied not just
to roaming on foot, but roaming by
whichever transport is available: horses,
snowmobiles, and in particular jeeps,
with huge tires that can glide over snowy
surfaces.
Icelanders like their jeeps. In fact, they
like to think that there are very few
places inaccessible to their version of
heavily modified 4WD vehicles, and they
have, to a great extent, been allowed
free reign over the country; especially
in winter when the ground is frozen.
Even though there are laws against off-
road driving, there has never been a
proper definition of trails that can be
driven, although this will change with
the new law. This penchant for off-
road driving has led to conflicts between
environmentalists and drivers, but also
to some comical moments when these
brave, some might say foolhardy, men
and women come unstuck. This was
poignantly illustrated in a wonderful art
project by Danish-Icelandic artist Ólafur
Elíasson, titled Cars in Rivers, which
showed a series of off-road vehicles stuck
in various rivers around the country.
There was something typically Icelandic
about these photographs, because they
depicted every man’s right to get stuck in
the river of his own choice.
This four-wheel-drive obsession has
made some positive contributions. One
of them is the great number of vol-
unteer mountain rescue squads armed
with monster trucks that can be found
all around the country, whose members
have saved countless lives. And if you
have been to Iceland, you will have
noticed huge jeeps lining the streets
outside downtown Reykjavík hotels early
in the morning, ready to take their pas-
sengers up Langjökull glacier and return
OPINION