"Don't use that word to a lawyer; he won't understand you.  Straining at gnats and swallowing camels is a required course in all law schools.  Besides, there is a case in point.  In the fifteenth century the Pope deeded the entire western hemisphere to Spain and Portugal and nobody paid the slightest attention to the fact that the real estate was already occupied by several million Indians with their own laws, customs, and notions of property rights.  His grant deed was pretty effective, too.  Take a look at a western hemisphere map sometime and notice where Spanish is spoken and where Portuguese is spoken - and see how much land the Indians have left."