Chapter 18 : Right to Property

Right to Property

Nature and Scope of Property

What is Property?

• The right to property is derived from the general theory of rights, but it is uniquely complex because its proper limits are harder to determine than rights like liberty.
• Types of Property:
• Natural/Inherited: Things not made by man but occupied or inherited by chance, force, or tradition (e.g., landed property).
• Cooperative Product: Things produced by the cooperative effort of many individuals employing different talents and labour (e.g., buildings, machinery, vehicles, capital assets).
• The Problem of Distribution: An individual's share in the product of their labour is rarely determined by the value of their contribution. It depends on external factors:
• Market forces of demand, supply, and competition.
• Conditions of previous investment (pre-existing ownership).
• Level of technological development.
• Social relations (master/slave, lord/serf, capitalist/worker).
• Because the prevailing pattern of ownership does not reflect an individual's contribution to the social good, property provides abundant scope for exploitation and injustice.
• The fundamental issue is transforming the right to property to serve social justice rather than remaining a weapon of exploitation.

Social Justice

• The right to property is questioned when it leads to the concentration of wealth, dividing society into 'haves' and 'have-nots' and threatening the spirit of fraternity.
• Historically, vast disparities in wealth, prestige, and power were justified by pseudo-religious pretensions (e.g., poverty as an outcome of a previous birth, the price of other-worldly gain, or divinely ordained).
• Modern consciousness rejects these beliefs as devices to cover up existing injustice. The justification and limits of property must be sought within the existing institutional framework, without relying on supernatural design.
• Henri Amiel (1821–81) observed: "We are always making God our accomplice so that we may legalize our own inequities."

Scope of Property

• Private property refers to the possession of material things open to personal or selfish use.
• Inclusions: Material things, animals/birds, and documents embodying entitlement (e.g., promissory notes, patents, shares, guarantees).
• Exclusions: Human beings. While slavery was recognized in the past, modern consciousness regards all human beings as ends-in-themselves, never as means to an end. Therefore, humans cannot be reduced to private property.