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This article is about the legal or moral ownership rights. For other uses, see Property (disambiguation).
Property law
Part of the common law series
Acquisition of property
Gift  · Adverse possession  · Deed
Lost, mislaid, or abandoned
Treasure trove
Alienation  · Bailment  · License
Estates in land
Allodial title  · Fee simple  · Fee tail
Life estate  · Defeasible estate
Future interest  · Concurrent estate
Leasehold estate  · Condominiums
Conveyancing of interests in land
Bona fide purchaser
Torrens title  · Strata title
Estoppel by deed  · Quitclaim deed
Mortgage  · Equitable conversion
Action to quiet title
Limiting control over future use
Restraint on alienation
Rule against perpetuities
Rule in Shelley's Case
Doctrine of worthier title
Nonpossessory interest in land
Easement  · Profit
Covenant running with the land
Equitable servitude
Related topics
Fixtures  · Waste  · Partition
Riparian water rights
Lateral and subjacent support
Assignment  · Nemo dat
Other areas of the common law
Contract law  · Tort law
Wills and trusts
Criminal Law  · Evidence

Property means Right of Action for things that can be exchanged. Property law is the area of Law that governs the various forms of Ownership in Real property (land as distinct from personal or movable possessions Common law refers to law and the corresponding legal system developed through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive A gift, in the Law of Property, has a very specific meaning In order for a Gift to be legally effective the grantor must have intended to give the gift In Common law, adverse possession is the process by which title to another's Real property is acquired without compensation, by as the name A deed is a Legal instrument used to grant a Right. Deeds are part of the broader category of documents under seal. In the Common law of Property, personal belongings that have left the possession of their rightful owners without having directly entered the possession of another person are A treasure trove may broadly be defined as an amount of gold silver gemstones money jewellery or any valuable collection found hidden underground or in places such as cellars Alienation, in Property law, is the capacity for a piece of property or a property right to be sold or otherwise transferred from one party to another Bailment describes a legal relationship in Common law where physical possession of personal Property ( Chattels) is transferred from one person (the The verb license or grant license means to give permission The noun license is the document demonstrating that permission An estate is the Net worth of a person at any point in time It is the sum of a person's Assets - legal rights interests and entitlements to Property of Allodial title is a concept in some systems of property law It describes a situation where Real property ( Land, Buildings and Fixtures) is owned Fee simple is an estate in land in Common law. It is the most common way Real estate is owned in common law countries and is ordinarily the most Fee tail or entail is an obsolete term of art in Common law. It describes an estate of Inheritance in Real property which cannot A life estate is a concept used in Common law and Statutory law to designate the ownership of land for the duration of a person's life A defeasible estate is created when a grantor transfers land conditionally In Property law and Real estate, a future interest is a legal right to property ownership that does not include the right to present possession or enjoyment of A concurrent estate or co-tenancy is a concept in Property law, particularly derived from the Common law of Real property, which describes A condominium, or condo, is a form of Housing tenure and other Real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate (usually of an apartment In law conveyancing is the transfer of title of Property from one person to another or the granting of an Encumbrance such as a Mortgage or A bona fide purchaser ( BFP) referred to more completely as a bona fide purchaser for value without notice is a term used in the Law of Real property Torrens title is a system of land title where a register of land holdings maintained by the state guarantees an indefeasible title to those included in the register Strata title is a form of ownership devised for multi-level apartment blocks. Estoppel by Deed - A doctrine where rules of evidence prevent a litigant from denying the truth of what was said or done A quitclaim deed is a term used to describe a document by which a person (the "grantor" disclaims any interest the Grantor may have in a piece of Real property A mortgage is the pledging of a property to a Lender as a security for a Mortgage loan. Equitable conversion is a doctrine of the Law of Real property under which a purchaser of real property becomes the equitable owner of title to the property at the An action to quiet title is a Lawsuit brought in a Court having Jurisdiction over land disputes in order to establish a party's title to Real property In Property law and Real estate, a future interest is a legal right to property ownership that does not include the right to present possession or enjoyment of A restraint on alienation, in the Law of Real property, is a clause used in the conveyance of real property that seeks to prohibit the recipient from selling The rule against perpetuities is a rule of law in effect under the property, Trusts, Estate, and Contract law of many Common law The Rule in Shelley's Case is a rule of law that may apply to certain Future interests in Real property and Trusts created in Common law jurisdictions In the Common law of England, the doctrine of worthier title was a legal doctrine that preferred taking title to Real estate by descent A nonpossessory interest in land is a term of the Law of Property to describe any of a category of rights held by one person to use land that is in the possession For railroad track easement see Track transition curve. An easement is the right or freedom to do something or the right to prevent Profit, but an entirely different meaning of the term analogous to an Easement. A covenant running with the land, is a Real covenant, in the Law of Real property. An equitable servitude is a term used in the Law of Real property to describe a Nonpossessory interest in land that operates much like a Covenant running In the law of real property fixtures are anything that would otherwise be a Chattel that have by reason of incorporation or affixation become permanently attached to Waste is a term used in the Law of Real property to describe a Cause of action that can be brought in Court to address a change in condition A partition is a term used in the Law of Real property to describe an act by a Court order or otherwise to divide up a Concurrent estate into Riparian Water rights (or simply riparian rights) is a system of allocating water among those who possess land about its source Lateral and subjacent support, in the Law of property, describes the right a landowner has to have that land physically supported in its natural state by both adjoining An assignment (Latin cessio) is a term used with similar meanings in the Law of Contracts and in the law of Real estate. Nemo dat quod non habet, literally meaning "no one give what one does not have" is a legal rule sometimes called the nemo dat rule that states that the purchase of A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do or refrain from doing an act which is enforceable in a court of law Tort law is the name given to a body of law that creates and provides remedies for civil wrongs that do not arise out of Contractual duties In Common law, a will or testament is a document by which a person (the Testator) regulates the rights of others over his or her Property The law of trusts and estates is generally considered the body of Law which governs the management of personal affairs and the Disposition of Property of The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different Jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential The Law of evidence governs the use of Testimony (eg oral or written statements such as an Affidavit) and exhibits (e Important types of property include real property (land), personal property (other physical possessions), and intellectual property (rights over artistic creations, inventions, etc. In the Common law, real property (or realty) refers to one of the two main classes of Property, the other class being Personal property ( Personal property is a type of Property. In the Common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. Intellectual property ( IP) is a legal field that refers to creations of the mind such as musical literary and artistic works inventions and symbols names ). A right of ownership is associated with property that establishes the good as being "one's own thing" in relation to other individuals or groups, assuring the owner the right to dispense with the property in a manner he or she sees fit, whether to use or not use, exclude others from using, or to transfer ownership. A right is a legal or moral Entitlement or Permission. Rights are of vital importance in theories of Justice and deontological ethics Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over Property, which may be an object, land/real estate, Intellectual property Some philosophers assert that property rights arise from social convention. A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted Standards norms social norms or criteria, often taking the form of Others find origins for them in morality or natural law (e. Morality (from the Latin la moralitas "manner character proper behavior" has three principal meanings Natural law or the law of nature ( Latin: lex naturalis) is a theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by Nature and that g. Saint Irenaeus).

Contents

Use of the term

Various scholarly communities (e. g. , law, economics, anthropology, sociology) may treat the concept more systematically, but definitions vary within and between fields. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Scholars in the social sciences frequently conceive of property as a bundle of rights. They stress that property is not a relationship between people and things, but a relationship between people with regard to things.

Public property is any property that is controlled by a state or by a whole community. Public property is Property which is owned by a Government or community as opposed to private property which is owned by non-government parties such as individuals Private property is any property that is not public property. Property is any physical or virtual entity that is owned by an individual Private property may be under the control of a single individual or by a group of individuals collectively. [1] Some philosophers like Karl Marx use it to describe a social relationship between those who sell their labor power and those who buy it.

General characteristics

Modern property rights conceive of ownership and possession as belonging to legal individuals, even if the legal individual is not a real person. Corporations, for example, have legal rights similar to American citizens, including many of their constitutional rights. Therefore, the corporation is a juristic person or artificial legal entity, which some refer to as "corporate personhood". Note This Wikipedia entry deals with the legal concept legal person.

Property rights are protected in the current laws of states usually found in the form of a Constitution or a Bill of Rights. A constitution is a system for government often Codified as a written document that establishes the rules and principles of an autonomous political entity A Bill of Rights is a list or summary of rights that are considered important and essential by a group of people The fifth and the fourteenth amendments to the United States constitution, for example, provide explicitly for the protection of private property:

The Fifth Amendment states:

Nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme Law of the United States. The Fifth Amendment ( Amendment V) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, is related to legal procedure

The Fourteenth Amendment states:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment ( Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution is one of the post- Civil War Reconstruction Amendments, first

Protection is also found in the United Nations's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 17, and in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Article XVII, and in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Protocol 1. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly ( 10 December 1948 at Palais The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen is a fundamental document of the French Revolution, defining The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (also called the "European Convention on Human Rights" and "ECHR" was adopted under the

Property is usually thought of in terms of a bundle of rights as defined and protected by the local sovereignty. The bundle of rights is a common way to explain the complexities of Property ownership Sovereignty is the exclusive Right to control a Government, a country, a people or oneself Ownership, however, does not necessarily equate with sovereignty. If ownership gave supreme authority it would be sovereignty, not ownership. Sovereignty is the exclusive Right to control a Government, a country, a people or oneself These are two different concepts.

Traditional principles of property rights includes:

  1. control of the use of the property
  2. the right to any benefit from the property (examples: mining rights and rent)
  3. a right to transfer or sell the property
  4. a right to exclude others from the property. Social control refers to social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior leading to conformity and compliances to the rules of a given Society or Mineral rights, mining rights, oil rights or drilling rights, are the rights to remove Minerals Oil, or sometimes Water Economic rent is the difference between what a Factor of production is paid and how much it would need to be paid to remain in its current use SELL ( Syndicat des éditeurs de logiciels de loisirs) is a French organisation that promotes the interests of video game developers In Anglo-Saxon law, an exclusive right is a de facto non-tangible Prerogative existing in law (that is the power or in a wider sense Right

Traditional property rights do not include:

  1. uses that unreasonably interfere with the property rights of another private party (the right of quiet enjoyment). [See Nuisance]
  2. uses that unreasonably interfere with public property rights, including uses that interfere with public health, safety, peace or convenience. Nuisance (through Fr noisance nuisance from Lat nocere to hurt is a Common law Tort. [See Public Nuisance, Police Power]

Legal systems have evolved to cover the transactions and disputes which arise over the possession, use, transfer and disposal of property, most particularly involving contracts. Police power is the capacity of a State to Regulate behaviours and enforce order within its Territory, often framed in terms of Public welfare A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do or refrain from doing an act which is enforceable in a court of law Positive law defines such rights, and a judiciary is used to adjudicate and to enforce. Positive law is a legal term that is sometimes understood to have more than one meaning In Law, the judiciary or judicial system is the system of Courts which administer Justice in the name of the sovereign or State

In his classic text, "The Common Law", Oliver Wendell Holmes describes property as having two fundamental aspects. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr ( March 8, 1841 &ndash March 6, 1935) was an American Jurist who served on the Supreme The first is possession, which can be defined as control over a resource based on the practical inability of another to contradict the ends of the possessor. The second is title, which is the expectation that others will recognize rights to control resource, even when it is not in possession. He elaborates the differences between these two concepts, and proposes a history of how they came to be attached to individuals, as opposed to families or entities such as the church.

According to Adam Smith, the expectation of profit from "improving one's stock of capital" rests on private property rights, and the belief that property rights encourage the property holders to develop the property, generate wealth, and efficiently allocate resources based on the operation of the market is central to capitalism. Adam Smith ( baptised 16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of Political economy. Wealth derives from the old English word "weal" which means "well-being In economic theory factors of production (or productive inputs) are the resources employed to produce goods and services Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where From this evolved the modern conception of property as a right which is enforced by positive law, in the expectation that this would produce more wealth and better standards of living.

"Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one's rights into reality, to think, to work and keep the results, which means: the right of property. Classical liberalism (also known as traditional liberalism, Laissez-faire liberalism, Market liberalism or in much of the world Objectivism is a Philosophy developed by Ayn Rand in the 20th century that encompasses positions on Metaphysics, Epistemology, " (Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged)
Most thinkers from these traditions subscribe to the labor theory of property. Ayn Rand (ˈaɪn ˈrænd &ndash March 6 1982 born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (Алиса Зиновьевна Розенбаум was a Russian born American Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States The labor theory of property is a Natural law theory that holds that property originally comes about by the exertion of labor upon natural resources They hold that you own your own life, and it follows that you must own the products of that life, and that those products can be traded in free exchange with others.
"Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself. " (John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government)
"Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. The Two Treatises of Government (or " Two Treatises of Government In the Former The False Principles and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer And His Followers are Detected On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. " (Frédéric Bastiat, The Law)
"The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property. Claude Frédéric Bastiat ( June 30, 1801 December 24, 1850) was a French classical liberal theorist political economist The Law, original French title La Loi, is a 1849 book by Frédéric Bastiat. " (John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government)

Not every person, or entity, with an interest in a given piece of property may be able to exercise all of the rights mentioned a few paragraphs above. The term person is used in Common sense to mean an individual Human being. An entity is something that has a distinct separate Existence, though it need not be a material existence For example, as a lessee of a particular piece of property, you may not sell the property, because the tenant is only in possession, and does not have title to transfer. Leasing is a process by which a firm can obtain the use of a certain fixed assets for which it must pay a series of contractual periodic tax deductable payments Similarly, while you are a lessee the owner cannot use his or her right to exclude to keep you from the property. Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over Property, which may be an object, land/real estate, Intellectual property A right is a legal or moral Entitlement or Permission. Rights are of vital importance in theories of Justice and deontological ethics (Or, if he or she does you may perhaps be entitled to stop paying rent or perhaps sue to regain access. )

Further, property may be held in a number of forms, e. g. joint ownership, community property, sole ownership, lease, etc. Community property is a Marital-property regime that originated in civil law jurisdictions and is now also found in some Common-law jurisdictions See also Leasing, Renting A lease is a Legal document, but can be an oral arrangement which confers a right on one person (called These different types of ownership may complicate an owner's ability to exercise his or her rights unilaterally. For example if two people own a single piece of land as joint tenants, then depending on the law in the jurisdiction, each may have limited recourse for the actions of the other. In Law, jurisdiction (from the Latin ius iuris meaning "law" and dicere meaning "to speak" is the practical Authority For example, one of the owners might sell his or her interest in the property to a stranger that the other owner does not particularly like. Interest is a fee paid on borrowed capital Assets lent include Money, Shares, Consumer goods through Hire purchase, major assets

Theories of property

There exist many theories. Perhaps one of the most popular was the natural rights definition of property rights as advanced by John Locke. John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. Locke advanced the theory that when one mixes one’s labor with nature, one gains ownership of that part of nature with which the labor is mixed, subject to the limitation that there should be "enough, and as good, left in common for others"[1].

From the RERUM NOVARUM, Pope Leo XIII wrote "It is surely undeniable that, when a man engages in remunerative labor, the impelling reason and motive of his work is to obtain property, and thereafter to hold it as his very own. Pope Leo XIII ( March 2, 1810 – July 20, 1903) born Count Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci, was the 256th Pope "

Anthropology studies the diverse systems of ownership, rights of use and transfer, and possession[2] under the term "theories of property". Western legal theory is based, as mentioned, on the owner of property being a legal individual. However, not all property systems are founded on this basis.

In every culture studied ownership and possession are the subject of custom and regulation, and "law" where the term can meaningfully be applied. Many tribal cultures balance individual ownership with the laws of collective groups: tribes, families, associations and nations. For example the 1839 Cherokee Constitution frames the issue in these terms:

Sec. 2. The lands of the Cherokee Nation shall remain common property; but the improvements made thereon, and in the possession of the citizens respectively who made, or may rightfully be in possession of them: Provided, that the citizens of the Nation possessing exclusive and indefeasible right to their improvements, as expressed in this article, shall possess no right or power to dispose of their improvements, in any manner whatever, to the United States, individual States, or to individual citizens thereof; and that, whenever any citizen shall remove with his effects out of the limits of this Nation, and become a citizen of any other government, all his rights and privileges as a citizen of this Nation shall cease: Provided, nevertheless, That the National Council shall have power to re-admit, by law, to all the rights of citizenship, any such person or persons who may, at any time, desire to return to the Nation, on memorializing the National Council for such readmission.

Communal property systems describe ownership as belonging to the entire social and political unit, while corporate systems describe ownership as being attached to an identifiable group with an identifiable responsible individual. The Roman property law was based on such a corporate system.

Different societies may have different theories of property for differing types of ownership. Pauline Peters argued that property systems are not isolable from the social fabric, and notions of property may not be stated as such, but instead may be framed in negative terms: for example the taboo system among Polynesian peoples. [2]

Property in philosophy

In medieval and Renaissance Europe the term "property" essentially referred to land. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere Much rethinking was necessary in order for land to come to be regarded as only a special case of the property genus. This rethinking was inspired by at least three broad features of early modern Europe: the surge of commerce, the breakdown of efforts to prohibit interest (then called "usury"), and the development of centralized national monarchies. Interest is a fee paid on borrowed capital Assets lent include Money, Shares, Consumer goods through Hire purchase, major assets Usury (ˈjuːʒəri comes from the Medieval Latin usuria, "interest" or "excessive interest" from the Latin usura "interest" A monarchy is a Form of government in which supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in an individual who is the Head of state, often for life or

Ancient philosophy

Urukagina, the king of the Sumerian city-state Lagash, established the first laws that forbade compelling the sale of property. Urukagina (reigned ca 2380 BC &ndash 2360 BC, Short chronology) alternately rendered as Uruinimgina or Irikagina, was a ruler Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar Lagash ( is modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq. Located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk The Cyrus cylinder of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, documents the protection of property rights. The Cyrus cylinder, also known as the Cyrus the Great cylinder, is a document issued by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the form of a clay The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire ( haχɒmaneʃijɒn (558–330 BC was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over significant portions of The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia [3]

The Ten Commandments shown in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 stated that the Israelites were not to steal. The Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, are a list of religious and moral imperatives that according to Judeo-Christian tradition were authored by God and given See also History of ancient Israel and Judah According to the Bible, the Israelites were the dominant group living in the Land of Israel. These texts, written in approximately 1300 B. C. , were a blanket early protection of private property.

Aristotle, in Politics, advocates "private property. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. " In one of the first known expositions of tragedy of the commons he says, "that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. The Tragedy of the Commons is the title of an influential article written by Garrett Hardin, first published in the journal Science in 1968. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual. " In addition, he says when property is common there are natural problems that arise due to differences in labor: "If they do not share equally enjoyments and toils, those who labor much and get little will necessarily complain of those who labor little and receive or consume much. But indeed there is always a difficulty in men living together and having all human relations in common, but especially in their having common property. " (Politics, 1261b34)

Pre-industrial English philosophy

Thomas Hobbes (1600s)

The principal writings of Thomas Hobbes appeared between 1640 and 1651—during and immediately following the war between forces loyal to King Charles I and those loyal to Parliament. Thomas Hobbes (born 5 April 1588died 4 December 1679 was an English philosopher, whose famous 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation The First English Civil War (1642–1646 was the first of three wars known as the English Civil War (or "Wars" Charles I, (19 November 1600 &ndash 30 January 1649 was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. TalkParliament#Screen-size. -->A  parliament is a Legislature, especially in those In his own words, Hobbes' reflection began with the idea of "giving to every man his own," a phrase he drew from the writings of Cicero. Marcus Tullius Cicero ( Classical Latin ˈkikeroː usually ˈsɪsərəʊ in English January 3, 106 BC &ndash December 7, 43 BC was a Roman But he wondered: How can anybody call anything his own? In that unsettled time and place it perhaps was natural that he would conclude: My own can only truly be mine if there is one unambiguously strongest power in the realm, and that power treats it as mine, protecting its status as such.

James Harrington (1600s)

A contemporary of Hobbes, James Harrington, reacted differently to the same tumult; he considered property natural but not inevitable. The author of Oceana, he may have been the first political theorist to postulate that political power is a consequence, not the cause, of the distribution of property. He said that the worst possible situation is one in which the commoners have half a nation's property, with crown and nobility holding the other half—a circumstance fraught with instability and violence. A much better situation (a stable republic) will exist once the commoners own most property, he suggested.

In later years, the ranks of Harrington's admirers would include American revolutionary and founder John Adams. John Adams (October 30 1735 July 4 1826 was one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.

Robert Filmer (1600s)

Another member of the Hobbes/Harrington generation, Sir Robert Filmer, reached conclusions much like Hobbes', but through Biblical exegesis. Sir Robert Filmer (1588 – 26 May 1653) was an English Political theorist. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin Exegesis (from the Greek 'to lead out' involves an extensive and critical interpretation of an authoritative text, especially of a Holy Filmer said that the institution of kingship is analogous to that of fatherhood, that subjects are but children, whether obedient or unruly, and that property rights are akin to the household goods that a father may dole out among his children—his to take back and dispose of according to his pleasure.

John Locke (1600s)

In the following generation, John Locke sought to answer Filmer, creating a rationale for a balanced constitution in which the monarch would have a part to play, but not an overwhelming part. John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. A constitution is a system for government often Codified as a written document that establishes the rules and principles of an autonomous political entity Since Filmer's views essentially require that the Stuart family be uniquely descended from the patriarchs of the Bible, and since even in the late seventeenth century that was a difficult view to uphold, Locke attacked Filmer's views in his First Treatise on Civil Government, freeing him to set out his own views in the Second Treatise on Civil Government. Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a Pater familias over an extended family Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar The Two Treatises of Government (or " Two Treatises of Government In the Former The False Principles and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer And His Followers are Detected Therein, Locke imagined a pre-social world, the unhappy residents of which create a social contract. Social contract describes a broad class of republican theories whose subjects are implied agreements by which people form Nations and maintain a Social order They would, he allowed, create a monarchy, but its task would be to execute the will of an elected legislature. A monarchy is a Form of government in which supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in an individual who is the Head of state, often for life or

"To this end" he wrote, meaning the end of their own long life and peace, "it is that men give up all their natural power to the society they enter into, and the community put the legislative power into such hands as they think fit, with this trust, that they shall be governed by declared laws, or else their peace, quiet, and property will still be at the same uncertainty as it was in the state of nature. A legislature is a type of representative Deliberative assembly with the power to create amend and change Laws The law created by a legislature is called Legislation State of nature is a term in Political philosophy used in Social contract theories to describe the hypothetical condition of humanity before the State 's "

Even when it keeps to proper legislative form, though, Locke held that there are limits to what a government established by such a contract might rightly do.

"It cannot be supposed that [the hypothetical contractors] they should intend, had they a power so to do, to give any one or more an absolute arbitrary power over their persons and estates, and put a force into the magistrate's hand to execute his unlimited will arbitrarily upon them; this were to put themselves into a worse condition than the state of nature, wherein they had a liberty to defend their right against the injuries of others, and were upon equal terms of force to maintain it, whether invaded by a single man or many in combination. Whereas by supposing they have given up themselves to the absolute arbitrary power and will of a legislator, they have disarmed themselves, and armed him to make a prey of them when he pleases. . . "

Note that both "persons and estates" are to be protected from the arbitrary power of any magistrate, inclusive of the "power and will of a legislator. " In Lockean terms, depredations against an estate are just as plausible a justification for resistance and revolution as are those against persons. In neither case are subjects required to allow themselves to become prey.

To explain the ownership of property Locke advanced a labor theory of property. The labor theory of property is a Natural law theory that holds that property originally comes about by the exertion of labor upon natural resources

William Blackstone (1700s)

In the 1760s, William Blackstone sought to codify the English common law. Events and Trends King George III ascends the British throne in 1760. Sir William Blackstone (originally pronounced Blexstun ( 10 July 1723 &ndash 14 February 1780) was an English Jurist and Common law refers to law and the corresponding legal system developed through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive In his famous Commentaries on the Laws of England he wrote that "every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether produced by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly is a degree of tyranny. The Commentaries on the Laws of England are an influential 18th century treatise on the Common law of England by Sir William Blackstone, originally "

How should such tyranny be prevented or resisted? Through property rights, Blackstone thought, which is why he emphasized that indemnification must be awarded a non-consenting owner whose property is taken by eminent domain, and that a property owner is protected against physical invasion of his property by the laws of trespass and nuisance. Eminent domain ( United States) compulsory purchase ( United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland) resumption/compulsory acquisition Trespass (Fr trespas a crime properly a stepping across from Lat Nuisance (through Fr noisance nuisance from Lat nocere to hurt is a Common law Tort. Indeed, he wrote that a landowner is free to kill any stranger on his property between dusk and dawn, even an agent of the King, since it isn't reasonable to expect him to recognize the King's agents in the dark.

David Hume (1700s)

In contrast to the figures discussed in this section thus far, David Hume lived a relatively quiet life that had settled down to a relatively stable social and political structure. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy He lived the life of a solitary writer until 1763 when, at 52 years of age, he went off to Paris to work at the British embassy. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city

In contrast, one might think, to his outrage-generating works on religion and his skeptical views in epistemology, Hume's views on law and property were quite conservative. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge

He did not believe in hypothetical contracts, or in the love of mankind in general, and sought to ground politics upon actual human beings as one knows them. "In general," he wrote, "it may be affirmed that there is no such passion in human mind, as the love of mankind, merely as such, independent of personal qualities, or services, or of relation to ourselves. " Existing customs should not lightly be disregarded, because they have come to be what they are as a result of human nature. With this endorsement of custom comes an endorsement of existing governments, because he conceived of the two as complementary: "A regard for liberty, though a laudable passion, ought commonly to be subordinate to a reverence for established government. Liberty, the freedom to act or believe without being stopped by unnecessary force For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government. "

These views led to a view on property rights that might today be described as legal positivism. Legal positivism is a school of thought in Jurisprudence and the Philosophy of law. There are property rights because of and to the extent that the existing law, supported by social customs, secure them. He offered some practical home-spun advice on the general subject, though, as when he referred to avarice as "the spur of industry," and expressed concern about excessive levels of taxation, which "destroy industry, by engendering despair. Greed is the Selfish desire for or pursuit of Money, Wealth, power, Food, or other Possessions, especially when this denies For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" "

Critique and response

By the mid 19th century, the industrial revolution had transformed England and had begun in France. The established conception of what constitutes property expanded beyond land to encompass scarce goods in general. In France, the revolution of the 1790s had led to large-scale confiscation of land formerly owned by church and king. The restoration of the monarchy led to claims by those dispossessed to have their former lands returned. Furthermore, the labor theory of value popularized by classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo were utilized by a new ideology called socialism to critique the relations of property to other economic issues, such as profit, rent, interest, and wage-labor. The labor theories of value (LTV are theories in Economics according to which the values of Commodities are related to the labor needed to Classical economics is widely regarded as the first modern school of economic thought. Adam Smith ( baptised 16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of Political economy. David Ricardo (18 April 1772 &ndash 11 September 1823 was an English political economist, often credited with systematizing economics and was one of the most influential Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution Thus, property was no longer an esoteric philosophical question, but a political issue of substantial concern.

Charles Comte - legitimate origin of property

Charles Comte, in Traité de la propriété (1834), attempted to justify the legitimacy of private property in response to the Bourbon Restoration. Following the ousting of Napoleon I of France in 1814 the Allies restored the Bourbon Dynasty to the French throne According to David Hart, Comte had three main points: "firstly, that interference by the state over the centuries in property ownership has had dire consequences for justice as well as for economic productivity; secondly, that property is legitimate when it emerges in such a way as not to harm anyone; and thirdly, that historically some, but by no means all, property which has evolved has done so legitimately, with the implication that the present distribution of property is a complex mixture of legitimately and illegitimately held titles. " (The Radical Liberalism of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer

Comte, as Proudhon would later do, rejected Roman legal tradition with its toleration of slavery. Roman law is the legal system of Ancient Rome. As used in the West the term commonly refers to legal developments prior to the Roman/Byzantine state's adopting He posited a communal "national" property consisting of non-scarce goods, such as land in ancient hunter-gatherer societies. Since agriculture was so much more efficient than hunting and gathering, private property appropriated by someone for farming left remaining hunter-gatherers with more land per person, and hence did not harm them. Thus this type of land appropriation did not violate the Lockean proviso - there was "still enough, and as good left. The Lockean Proviso is a portion of John Locke's Labor theory of property which says that though individuals have a right to acquire private property from nature that they " Comte's analysis would be used by later theorists in response to the socialist critique on property.

Pierre Proudhon - property is theft

Main articles: What is Property? and Property is theft!

In his 1849 treatise What is Property?, Pierre Proudhon answers with "Property is theft!" In natural resources, he sees two types of property, de jure property (legal title) and de facto property (physical possession), and argues that the former is illegitimate. What is Property? Or an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government ( French Qu'est-ce que la propriété ? ou Recherche sur le principe du Droit Property is theft! ( French: La propriété c'est le vol!) is a slogan coined by French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his 1840 book What is Property? Or an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government ( French Qu'est-ce que la propriété ? ou Recherche sur le principe du Droit Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (ˈpruːd ɒn in British English, dɔ̃ in French) ( 15 January 1809 – 19 January 1865) was Property is theft! ( French: La propriété c'est le vol!) is a slogan coined by French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his 1840 book Proudhon's conclusion is that "property, to be just and possible, must necessarily have equality for its condition. "

His analysis of the product of labor upon natural resources as property (usufruct) is more nuanced. He asserts that land itself cannot be property, yet it should be held by individual possessors as stewards of mankind with the product of labor being the property of the producer. Proudhon reasoned that any wealth gained without labor was stolen from those who labored to create that wealth. Even a voluntary contract to surrender the product of labor to an employer was theft, according to Proudhon, since the controller of natural resources had no moral right to charge others for the use of that which he did not labor to create and therefore did not own.

Proudhon's theory of property greatly influenced the budding socialist movement, inspiring anarchist theorists such as Mikhail Bakunin who modified Proudhon's ideas, as well as antagonizing theorists like Karl Marx. Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin ( - July 1 1876) was a well-known Russian Revolutionary and theorist of Collectivist anarchism.

Frédéric Bastiat - property is value

Frédéric Bastiat's main treatise on property can be found in chapter 8 of his book Economic Harmonies (1850). Claude Frédéric Bastiat ( June 30, 1801 December 24, 1850) was a French classical liberal theorist political economist [3] In a radical departure from traditional property theory, he defines property not as a physical object, but rather as a relationship between people with respect to an object. Thus, saying one owns a glass of water is merely verbal shorthand for I may justly gift or trade this water to another person. In essence, what one owns is not the object but the value of the object. By "value," Bastiat apparently means market value; he emphasizes that this is quite different from utility. "In our relations with one another, we are not owners of the utility of things, but of their value, and value is the appraisal made of reciprocal services. "

Strongly disputing Proudhon's equality-based argument, Bastiat theorizes that, as a result of technological progress and the division of labor, the stock of communal wealth increases over time; that the hours of work an unskilled laborer expends to buy e. g. 100 liters of wheat decreases over time, thus amounting to "gratis" satisfaction. Thus, private property continually destroys itself, becoming transformed into communal wealth. The increasing proportion of communal wealth to private property results in a tendency toward equality of mankind. "Since the human race started from the point of greatest poverty, that is, from the point where there were the most obstacles to be overcome, it is clear that all that has been gained from one era to the next has been due to the spirit of property. "

This transformation of private property into the communal domain, Bastiat points out, does not imply that private property will ever totally disappear. This is because man, as he progresses, continually invents new and more sophisticated needs and desires.

Contemporary views

Among contemporary political thinkers who believe that human individuals enjoy rights to own property and to enter into contracts, there are two views about John Locke. On the one hand there are ardent Locke admirers, such as W.H. Hutt (1956), who praised Locke for laying down the "quintessence of individualism. William Harold "Bill" Hutt ( 3 August 1899 – 1988) was an English Economist who described himself as a Classical liberal " On the other hand, there are those such as Richard Pipes who think that Locke's arguments are weak, and that undue reliance thereon has weakened the cause of individualism in recent times. Richard Edgar Pipes (born July 11, 1923) is an American historian who specializes in Russian history, particularly with respect to the history of the Pipes has written that Locke's work "marked a regression because it rested on the concept of Natural Law" rather than upon Harrington's sociological framework. Natural law or the law of nature ( Latin: lex naturalis) is a theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by Nature and that

Hernando de Soto has argued that an important characteristic of capitalist market economy is the functioning state protection of property rights in a formal property system where ownership and transactions are clearly recorded. Hernando de Soto (born 1941 - 06-02) is a Peruvian Economist known for his work on the Informal economy and on the importance of These property rights and the whole formal system of property make possible:

All of the above enhance economic growth. [4]

Types of property

This sign declaring a parking lot to be "private property" illustrates one method of identifying and protecting property. Note the citations to legal statutes.
This sign declaring a parking lot to be "private property" illustrates one method of identifying and protecting property. Note the citations to legal statutes. A statute is a formal written enactment of a Legislative authority that governs a Country, State, City, or County.

Most legal systems distinguish different types (immovable property, estate in land, real estate, real property) of property, especially between land and all other forms of property - goods and chattels, movable property or personal property. The three major legal systems of the world today consist of civil law, Common law and Religious law. In the Common law, real property (or realty) refers to one of the two main classes of Property, the other class being Personal property ( An estate in land is an interest in Real property that is or may become possessory Real estate is a legal term (in some jurisdictions notably in the USA, United Kingdom In the Common law, real property (or realty) refers to one of the two main classes of Property, the other class being Personal property ( Personal property is a type of Property. In the Common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. Personal property is a type of Property. In the Common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. Personal property is a type of Property. In the Common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. They often distinguish tangible and intangible property (see below).

One categorization scheme specifies three species of property: land, improvements (immovable man made things) and personal property (movable man made things)

In common law, real property (immovable property) is the combination of interests in land and improvements thereto and personal property is interest in movable property. Common law refers to law and the corresponding legal system developed through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive In the Common law, real property (or realty) refers to one of the two main classes of Property, the other class being Personal property ( In the Common law, real property (or realty) refers to one of the two main classes of Property, the other class being Personal property ( Personal property is a type of Property. In the Common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty.

'Real property' rights are rights relating to the land. These rights include ownership and usage. Owners can grant rights to persons and entities in the form of leases, licenses and easements.

Later, with the development of more complex forms of non-tangible property, personal property was divided into tangible property (such as cars, clothing, animals) and intangible or abstract property (e. Clothing (also called clothes, accoutrements, accouterments, or habiliments) protects the Human body from extreme Weather g. financial instruments such as stocks and bonds, etc. Financial instruments are cash evidence of an ownership interest in an entity or a contractual right to receive or deliver cash or another financial instrument Software for Fixed assets management and Stock control developed in 2004. In Finance, a bond is a Debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and is obliged to repay the principal and Interest ), which includes intellectual property (patents, copyrights, and trademarks). Intellectual property ( IP) is a legal field that refers to creations of the mind such as musical literary and artistic works inventions and symbols names A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for A trademark or trade mark, represented by the symbols ™ and ®, or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual

What can be property?

The two major justifications given for original property, or homesteading, are effort and scarcity. Broadly defined homesteading is a lifestyle of simple agrarian Self-sufficiency. John Locke emphasized effort, "mixing your labor" with an object, or clearing and cultivating virgin land. John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. Benjamin Tucker preferred to look at the telos of property, i. Benjamin Ricketson Tucker ( April 17, 1854 &ndash June 22, 1939) was a leading proponent of American Individualist anarchism A telos (from the Greek word for "end" "purpose" or "goal" is an end or Purpose, in a fairly constrained sense used by philosophers such as e. What is the purpose of property? His answer: to solve the scarcity problem. Only when items are relatively scarce with respect to people's desires do they become property. [5] For example, hunter-gatherers did not consider land to be property, since there was no shortage of land. Agrarian societies later made arable land property, as it was scarce. For something to be economically scarce, it must necessarily have the exclusivity property - that use by one person excludes others from using it. These two justifications lead to different conclusions on what can be property. Intellectual property - non-corporeal things like ideas, plans, orderings and arrangements (musical compositions, novels, computer programs) - are generally considered valid property to those who support an effort justification, but invalid to those who support a scarcity justification (since they don't have the exclusivity property. Intellectual property ( IP) is a legal field that refers to creations of the mind such as musical literary and artistic works inventions and symbols names ) Thus even ardent propertarians may disagree about IP. [6] By either standard, one's body is one's property.

From some anarchist points of view, the validity of property depends on whether the "property right" requires enforcement by the state. Anarchism is a Political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all compulsory Government, i Different forms of "property" require different amounts of enforcement: intellectual property requires a great deal of state intervention to enforce, ownership of distant physical property requires quite a lot, ownership of carried objects requires very little, while ownership of one's own body requires absolutely no state intervention. Intellectual property ( IP) is a legal field that refers to creations of the mind such as musical literary and artistic works inventions and symbols names

Many things have existed that did not have an owner, sometimes called the commons. Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over Property, which may be an object, land/real estate, Intellectual property Common land (a common) is a piece of land owned by one person but over which other people can exercise certain traditional rights such as allowing their livestock to graze The term "commons," however, is also often used to mean something quite different: "general collective ownership" - i. e. common ownership. Also, the same term is sometimes used by statists to mean government-owned property that the general public is allowed to access. Statism (or Etatism) is a very loose and often Derogatory term that is used to describe Specific instances of state intervention in personal social Law in all societies has tended to develop towards reducing the number of things not having clear owners. Supporters of property rights argue that this enables better protection of scarce resources, due to the tragedy of the commons, while critics argue that it leads to the exploitation of those resources for personal gain and that it hinders taking advantage of potential network effects. The Tragedy of the Commons is the title of an influential article written by Garrett Hardin, first published in the journal Science in 1968. In Economics and Business, a network effect (also called network externality) is the effect that one user of a good or service has These arguments have differing validity for different types of "property" -- things which are not scarce are, for instance, not subject to the tragedy of the commons. The Tragedy of the Commons is the title of an influential article written by Garrett Hardin, first published in the journal Science in 1968. Some apparent critics actually are advocating general collective ownership rather than ownerlessness.

Things today which do not have owners include: ideas (except for intellectual property), seawater (which is, however, protected by anti-pollution laws), parts of the seafloor (see the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for restrictions), gasses in Earth's atmosphere, animals in the wild (though there may be restrictions on hunting etc. An idea is a form (such as a Thought) formed by Consciousness (including Mind) through the Process of ideation. Intellectual property ( IP) is a legal field that refers to creations of the mind such as musical literary and artistic works inventions and symbols names Seawater is Water from a Sea or Ocean. On average seawater in the world's oceans has a Salinity of about 3 "Ocean Floor" redirects here For the 2001 song by Audio Adrenaline, see Lift (Audio Adrenaline album. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ( UNCLOS) also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty is the international agreement that resulted Temperature and layers The temperature of the Earth's atmosphere varies with altitude the mathematical relationship between temperature and altitude varies among five -- and in some legal systems, such as that of New York, they are actually treated as government property), celestial bodies and outer space, and land in Antarctica.

The nature of children under the age of majority is another contested issue here. The age of majority is the threshold of Adulthood as it is conceptualized (and recognized or declared in Law. In ancient societies children were generally considered the property of their parents. Children in most modern societies theoretically own their own bodies -- but they are considered incompetent to exercise their rights, and their parents or guardians are given most of the actual rights of control over them. A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority (and the corresponding duty to care for the personal and Property interests of another person called a ward

Questions regarding the nature of ownership of the body also come up in the issue of abortion and drugs. An A drug, broadly speaking is any chemical substance that when absorbed into the body

In many ancient legal systems (e. g. early Roman law), religious sites (e. Roman law is the legal system of Ancient Rome. As used in the West the term commonly refers to legal developments prior to the Roman/Byzantine state's adopting g. temples) were considered property of the God or gods they were devoted to. A temple (from the Latin word Templum) is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities such as prayer and sacrifice or analogous rites God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. However, religious pluralism makes it more convenient to have religious sites owned by the religious body that runs them. Religious pluralism (rel Comparative religion) is a loosely defined expression concerning acceptance of different Religions and is used in a number of related

Intellectual property and air (airspace, no-fly zone, pollution laws, which can include tradeable emissions rights) can be property in some senses of the word. Intellectual property ( IP) is a legal field that refers to creations of the mind such as musical literary and artistic works inventions and symbols names Airspace means the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a particular country on top of its territory and Territorial waters or more generally any specific three-dimensional A no-fly zone is a territory over which Aircraft are not permitted to fly Emissions trading (or emission trading) is an administrative approach used to control Pollution by providing economic Incentives for

Rights of use as property

Ownership of land can be held separately from the ownership of rights over that land, including sporting rights[7], mineral rights, development rights, air rights, and such other rights as may be worth segregating from simple land ownership. Mineral rights, mining rights, oil rights or drilling rights, are the rights to remove Minerals Oil, or sometimes Water Air rights are a type of development right in Real estate. Generally speaking owning or renting land or a Building gives one the right to use and develop the empty

Who can be an owner?

Ownership laws may vary widely among countries depending on the nature of the property of interest (e. g. firearms, real property, personal property, animals). In some societies only adult men may own property. In many societies legal entities, such as corporations, trusts, and nations (or governments) own property. Note This Wikipedia entry deals with the legal concept legal person. A corporation is a separate legal entity usually used to conduct business In Common law legal systems a trust is an arrangement whereby Property (including real tangible and intangible is managed by one person (or persons or organizations

In the Inca empire, the dead emperors, who were considered gods, still controlled property after death. [4].

References

  1. ^ Understanding Principles of Politics and the State, by John Schrems, PageFree Publishing (2004), page 234
  2. ^ Hann, Chris A new double movement? Anthropological perspectives on property in the age of neoliberalism Socio-Economic Review, Volume 5, Number 2, April 2007, pp. 287-318(32)
  3. ^ Arthur Henry Robertson, John Graham Merrills (1996). Human Rights in the World: An Introduction to the Study of the International Protection of Human Rights. Manchester University Press. Manchester University Press is the University press of the University of Manchester, England. ISBN 0719049237.
  4. ^ Mckay, John P. , 2004, "A History of World Societes". Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

See also

Property taking (illegal)

Property of either digital or virtual form

Property economists

References

External links and references

Dictionary

property

-noun

  1. Something that is owned.
  2. A parcel of land.
  3. The exclusive right of possessing, enjoying, and disposing of a thing.
  4. (mainly philosophy) An attribute or abstract quality associated with an object.
  5. (computing) An editable or read-only parameter associated with an application, component, or class, or the value of such a parameter.
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