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Natural Property Rights presents a novel theory of property based on individual, pre-political rights. The book argues that a just system of property protects people's rights to use resources and also orders those rights consistent with natural law and the public welfare. Drawing on influential property theorists such as Grotius, Locke, Blackstone, and early American statesmen and judges, as well as recent work in in normative and analytical philosophy, the book shows how natural rights guide political and legal reasoning about property law. It examines how natural rights justify the most familiar institutions in property, including public property, ownership, the system of estates and future interests, leases, servitudes, mortgages, police regulation, and eminent domain. Thought-provoking and comprehensive, the book challenges leading contemporary justifications for property and shows how property both secures individual freedom and serves the common good.
List of contents
Acknowledgments; Table of Legislative Materials; Table of Cases; Table of Multiple Edition Works; Part I. Foundations: 1. Introduction; 2. Natural law and rights; 3. Practical reason; Part II. The Natural Right to Property: 4. Property's subject matter and interest; 5. Property's element and scope; 6. Property's conceptual structure; 7. Property, natural law, and Nozick; Part III. Property Law: 8. Justifying ownership; 9. Limiting ownership; 10. Designing property rights; 11. Subdividing ownership rights; Part IV. Property in Common Law and Public Law: 12. Common law, duties, and harms; 13. Police regulation; 14. Eminent Domain; 15. Conclusion; Index.
About the author
Eric R. Claeys is Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. He has written more than twenty-five articles and book chapters on property, natural rights, and Lockean labor theory.
Summary
Natural Property Rights presents a novel theory of property based on individual, pre-political rights. The book argues that a just system of property protects people's rights to use resources and also orders those rights consistent with natural law and the public welfare. Drawing on influential property theorists such as Grotius, Locke, Blackstone, and early American statesmen and judges, as well as recent work in in normative and analytical philosophy, the book shows how natural rights guide political and legal reasoning about property law. It examines how natural rights justify the most familiar institutions in property, including public property, ownership, the system of estates and future interests, leases, servitudes, mortgages, police regulation, and eminent domain. Thought-provoking and comprehensive, the book challenges leading contemporary justifications for property and shows how property both secures individual freedom and serves the common good.
