Abstract
This chapter gives the basic legal grounds and understanding for the solutions of clear responsibilities to nature as proposed in this book. It shows the citations leading to the inference that the responsibilities are valid for our time as per the recognized main source of the absolute property rights in itself and supported by modern interpreters and other influential texts on property from the past. It also gives the basic philosophical understanding of property limits being; no harm done to others and equality.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Locke further adds that those who have a defect or lack of capacity to reason must be guided by those who do since they are incapable of, ‘so living within the rules of It [reason]’ (Locke, II, 60).
- 2.
Ashcraft concludes that the government should employ the use of land in securing the honest industry of mankind: ‘[T]hat the increase of lands, and the right employing of them, is the great art of government: and that prince, who shall be so wise and godlike, as by established laws of liberty to secure protection and encouragement to the honest industry of mankind, against the oppression of power and narrowness of party, will quickly be too hard for his neighbours’ (emphasis added) (Ashcraft 1986, 274).
- 3.
A modern author, Christman, proposes an interesting view of Locke that holds that full ownership cannot be justified on the basis of natural rights alone. As such, those rights are always subject to some higher natural law limitations. In his words, ‘[T]he ‘property in’ the object amounts to rights against expropriation and, therefore, rights to use, manage, possess, and have security in the object. But, … not what I have been calling full ownership of property which would include the right to accumulate, and gain income from property.’ He asserts that Locke would hold that full ownership rights are always subject to certain natural law limitations and revisions for the security of the common good. Christman bases his main argument on the fact that whenever Locke refers to the right to ‘enlarge possessions,’ he refers to rights made possible by the introduction of money and no any other rights (Locke II, 54–57; Christman 1986, 133–145).
- 4.
For further confirmation of these authors and more, see Hiller Marguerat (2014, 231).
- 5.
For other confirmation of Locke’s natural law limits, see Hiller Marguerat (2014, 214).
- 6.
Locke II, 5. Locke demonstrates that the desire to be appreciated and loved by others of the same species implies the duty to treat others with the same degree of affection. ‘[M]y desire therefore to be loved of my equals in nature as much as possible may be, imposeth upon me a natural duty of bearing to them-ward fully the like affection; from which relation of equality between ourselves and them that are as ourselves’ (Locke II, 5).
- 7.
Pufendorf also states that people have a natural right to their ‘own’ life and liberties ‘against the Attempts of a Tyrant’ (emphasis added) (Pufendorf 1749, Bk. VII, Ch. 8, Para. 719, fn. 2).
- 8.
‘[I]s a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid: for the idea of property being a right to anything, and the idea to which the name ‘injustice’ is given being the invasion or violation of that right, it is evident that these ideas, being thus established, and these names annexed to them, I can certainly know this position to be true, as that a triangle has three angles equal to two right ones.’ (Locke 1693, Education, Para. 18, emphasis added).
- 9.
This can be easily found and repeatedly in almost all sources of religions. See, for example: Judaism: Old Testament, see within the Torah: Leviticus [19:17–18]; Christianity: New Testament, see Gospel of Mark [12:28–31], Gospel of Matthew [22:35–40], Gospel of Luke [10:25–28].
References
Ashcraft, Richard. Revolutionary Politics and Locke’s Two Treatises of Government. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.
Ashcraft, Richard. Locke’s Two Treatises of Government. London: Unwin Hyman, 1987.
Bentham, Jeremy. Anarchical Fallacies, Being an Examination of the Declarations of Rights Issued During the French Revolution. The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Vol. 2 of 11. Edinburgh: William Tait, 1843. http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxtandstaticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1921andchapter=114226andlayout=htmlandItemid=27.
Christman, John. ‘Locke’s Second Treatise of Government Called ‘of Property.’’ In Two Treatises of Government, edited by Thomas I. Cook. New York: Hafner Press, 1986.
Daston, Lorraine, and Michael Stolleis Daston, eds. Natural Law and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Europe Jurisprudence, Theology, Moral and Natural Philosophy. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2008.
Dunn, John. The Political Thought of John Locke: An Historical Account of the Argument of the ‘Two Treatises of Government.’ Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
Dunn, John. Locke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Forde, Steven. ‘Natural Law, Theology, and Morality in Locke.’ American Journal of Political Science 45, no. 2 (2001): 396–409.
Forde, Steven. ‘What Does Locke Expect Us to Know?’ The Review of Politics 68, no. 2 (2006): 232–258.
Grotius, Hugo. De jure belli ac pacis libri tres (The law of war and peace). Translated by A. C. Campbell. London: Clarendon Press, 1625. http://www.constitution.org/gro/djbp.htm.
Hiller Marguerat, Shelly. ‘John Locke’s Concept of Property and His Natural Law Limits Based on Reason.’ Doctorate thesis. Geneva University Archives Online, Geneva, 2014. https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:36849.
Höpfner, Ludwig Julius Friedrich. Naturrecht des einzelnen Menschen, der Gesellschaften und der Völker. 3rd ed. Gießen: Johann Christian Krieger, 1780.
Judge, Rebecca P. ‘Restoring the Commons: Toward a New Interpretation of Locke’s Theory of Property.’ Land Economics 78, no. 3 (2002): 331–338.
Justinian (533 AD). Digest Book. 1932 ed. Translated by S. P. Scott. Cincinnati: The Central Trust Company, 1932. http://www.constitution.org/sps/sps.htm.
Locke, John. Two treatises of government, 1764 ed. London Printed MDCLXXXVIIII, 1690. http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtreat.txt or https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/politics/locke/ch00.htm.
Locke, John. (1693). Some Thoughts Concerning Education. 2001 ed. of reprint 1909–1914. New York: P.F. Collier and Son, 2001. http://www.bartleby.com/37/1/3.html.
Macpherson, Crawford Brough. ‘Locke on Capitalist Appropriation.’ The Western Political Quarterly 4, no. 4 (1951): 550–566.
Mill, J. S. ‘Remarks on Bentham’s Philosophy. Essays on Ethics, Religion and Society.’ In The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, vol. 10. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1833. http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxtandstaticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=241andchapter=21491andlayout=htmlandItemid=27.
Pitkin, Hanna. ‘Obligation and Consent—I.’ American Political Science Review 60, no. 1 (1966): 39–52.
Pufendorf, Samuel. The Law of Nature and of Nations. 5th ed. Edited by J. Barbeyrac. Translated by B. Kennett. London, 1749.
Reeve, Andrew. Property. Houndmills: Macmillan and Co., 1986.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques. What Is the Origin of Inequality Among Men, and It Is Authorized by Natural Law. Translated by G. D. H. Cole. 1754. http://www.constitution.org/jjr/ineq_02.htm.
Shapiro, Ian. The Evolution of Rights in Liberal Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Simmons, A. John. The Lockean Theory of Rights. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Tully, James. A Discourse on Property: John Locke and His Adversaries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Vattel, Emeric. Le loisir philosophique ou pièces diverses de philosophie, de morale et d’amusement. Geneva: G. C. Walther Press, 1747.
Von Leyden, Wolfgang. ‘John Locke and Natural Law.’ Philosophy 31, no. 116 (1956): 23–35.
Waldron, Jeremy. The Right to Private Property. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hiller Marguerat, S. (2019). The Basis for the Clear and Affordable Responsibilities to Property Rights. In: Private Property Rights and the Environment. Palgrave Studies in Environmental Policy and Regulation . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97900-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97900-7_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97899-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97900-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)