Definition

Property rights are established when one respects another’s relationship to property.

Discussion

Overview

Property rights start from the fundamental premise that we own ourselves. This is the opposite of slavery. Slavery is one person owning another.

Because we legally own ourselves, it naturally follows that when we labor, we are entitled to the fruits of our labor, whether that is money or goods we have peacefully bargained for. As owners of money or goods, we are entitled to exchange them with others to become the peaceful and rightful owners of whatever was peacefully bargained for and acquired.

If you eat food, wear clothes, or assert the right to control your body, you believe in property rights.

Property Rights

Property rights, the right to own your property, underpin the law against theft, rape, assault, murder, pollution, and all other victim crimes. Indeed, there can be no aggression without first establishing ownership of property to be aggressed against.

It is only the extent to which property rights are protected that determines whether a society is free.

You are free only to the extent you exercise decision-making control over your body and other property.

Property rights do not prevent generosity

Owning property does not require selfishness. We can be incredibly generous with that which we own, and in fact, voluntary kindness and seeking win/win outcomes are incorporated into 3L’s Aspirational Values. An owner of land can steward it entirely for the purpose of allowing biodiversity to thrive or grow food to be shared with others. There are so many ways we can be generous stewards of property. Indeed, many people seek to own property for the purpose of sharing it with others.

Three Levels of How Property Enables Peace

• Stage 1: ‘Chaos’ — no property rights; no freedom

  • Without legal enforcement of property rights, theft, rape, assault, murder, and pollution would be pervasive. Some would call this ‘hell’.
  • The Legal Principle, “don’t aggress”, is therefore essential for equality under the law that allows each of us to determine how we choose to control our property and pursue our lives.

• Stage 2: ‘Freedom’ — property rights respected, but people are selfish

  • This is a free society, but not necessarily a peaceful one.
  • 3L defends the right of all people not to be aggressed against, even those who don’t adhere to the Moral Principle.

• Stage 3: ‘Peace’ — property rights respected, and people are generous

  • This is a free and peaceful society.
  • Such a society is not possible without the Legal Principle and voluntary adoption of the [Moral Principle.

Contested Ownership (Insights from Stephan Kinsella)

The owner of property is determined in accordance with three principles:

1. Original appropriation: the first user of a resource has a better claim than latecomers.
2. Contractual transfer: Ownership may be acquired by consensual title transfer from a previous owner.
3. Rectification: transfer as a result of violating the Legal Principle (such as the use of another person’s property without consent, i.e., theft) gives rise to a claim by the victim to resources owned by the aggressor, for purposes of restitution.

Summary: The initial user of a resource presumptively has a better claim to the resource than anyone else, unless he has transferred it to a second owner by contract or as a result of rectification for violating the Legal Principle in some way.

For property title disputes, the party proving the better claim to the property prevails, taking any relevant presumptions and burdens and standards of proof into account.