Abstract
This entry focuses on the legitimacy of private property and analyzes the process of first appropriation. In particular, we examine and comment the different views on the origin of private property rights that have emerged through the history of economic and legal thinking, from Democritus to de Jasay. These views have been grouped in two broad categories: consequentialism and fundamental principles. Although consequentialism is now dominant among economists and inchoate in the legal profession, we observe that it is in fact an alibi for discretionary policymaking by the authority. By definition, fundamentalist approaches generate rules that limit discretion. However, we show that some fundamentalist views rest on questionable a priori statements. De Jasay’s argument based on the presumption of liberty is perhaps the only perspective that escapes this criticism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Alchian A (1965) Some economics of property rights. Il Politico 30(4):816–829
Barzel (1989) Economic analysis of property rights. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Boaz D (1997) Libertarianism, chapter 3. The Free Press, New York
Bouillon H (2011) Business ethics and the Austrian tradition in economics, chapter 2. Routledge, London
de Jasay A (1991) Choice, contract, consent: a restatement of liberalism. Institute of Economic Affairs, London
de Jasay A (1998) Justice. In: Newman P (ed) The new Palgrave dictionary of economics and the law. MacMillan Reference Limited, London, pp 400–409
de Jasay A (2005) Freedom from a mainly logical perspective. Philosophy 80(4):565–584
Demsetz H (1967) Toward a theory of property rights. Am Econ Rev 57(2):346–359
Diels H (1903) Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin
Kilcullen J, Robinson J (2017) Medieval political philosophy. In: Zalta EN (ed) The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition). forthcoming URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/medieval-political/
Lepage H (1985) Pourquoi la propriété. Hachette, Paris
Liggio L, Chafuen A (2004) Cultural and religious foundations of private property. In: Colombatto E (ed) The Elgar companion to the economics of property rights. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 3–47
Locke J (1689) In: Hollis T (ed) Two treatises of government, London. A Millar et al. 1764 – available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/222
Nozick R (1974) Anarchy, state and utopia. Basic Books, New York
O’Donovan O, O’Donovan JL (eds) (1999) From Irenaeus to Grotius: a sourcebook in Christian political thought. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids
Pejovich S (1972) Towards an economic theory of the creation and specification of property rights. Rev Soc Econ 30(3):309–325
Rothbard MN (1974) Justice and property rights. In: Blumenfeld S (ed) Property in a humane economy. Open Court, La Salle, pp 101–122
Rothbard MN (1995) Economic thought before Adam Smith, vol I. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham
Vaugh K (1980) John Locke’s theory of property: problems of interpretation. Lit Lib: Rev Contemp Lib Thought III(1):5–37
Waldron J (2016) Property and ownership. In: Zalta EN (ed) The stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition). URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/property/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media LLC
About this entry
Cite this entry
Colombatto, E., Tavormina, V. (2017). Private Property: Origins. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_724-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_724-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7883-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7883-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences