Finders keepers (English adage)

Finders keepers, sometimes extended as the children's rhyme finders keepers, losers weepers, is an English adage with the premise that when something is unowned or abandoned, whoever finds it first may claim it for themselves to own, by the “first in time” legal standard. The phrase relates to an ancient Roman law of similar meaning and has been expressed in various ways over the centuries. It can be uncertain, however, just when or how something is unowned or abandoned, and a party other than the finder may lay claim to it, leading to legal or ethical disputes, whose findings different courts or jurisdictions may interpret differently. In one case involving two claimants, the 1982 English Court of Appeal case Parker v British Airways Board, the judgement of Donaldson L.J. declared, "Finders keepers, unless the true owner claims the article".