Definition
- All property rights start from the premise that we own ourselves (the opposite of slavery). If we legally own ourselves, it naturally follows that when we peacefully acquire resources via exchange with other people, we then legally own those resources.
- Our property is that which we legally own. It includes one’s body and peacefully acquired possessions, like money, real estate and personal items.
- If you eat food, wear clothes or assert the tight to control your body, you believe in property rights.
Property ‘rights’
- Ownership itself is defined as having the right to make decisions over the property at the exclusion others. ‘Ownership’ might also be better phrased as that which we have stewardship over.
- For example, when you eat food, you use that property (the food you eat) to the exclusion of all other people.
- Property rights underpin the law against theft, rape, assault, murder and pollution. It is property rights that protects us from hell on earth. The overthrow of Tibet, and many other peaceful communities, stemmed from the invaders’ lack of respect for property rights, and the Tibetan’s inadequate means to repel those invaders.
- You are free to the extent you can exercise decision-making control over your body and 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 growing food to be shared with others… there are so many ways we can be generous stewards of property.
Grey areas
- Whether intangible things like information is deemed to be property is a grey area that reasonable minds disagree on.
3 levels of relating to property
- 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 3L Principle, “don’t aggress”, is therefore essential for equality under the law that allows each of us to determine how we choose to pursue our lives.
- Stage 2: ‘Freedom’ – property rights respected, but people are selfish
- This is a free society, but not a peaceful one.
- 3L defends the right for all people not to be aggressed against, even those that don’t adhere to the Aspirational Values.
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 3L Principle and voluntary adoption of the Aspirational Values.
The 3L Movement’s mission is to calibrate all laws globally such the floor is set at stage 2 (’Freedom’), allowing humanity to voluntarily adopt the Aspirational Values that get us to stage 3 (’Peace’).
Contested ownership (insights from Stephan Kinsella)
- The owner of property is determined in accordance with three principles:
- Original appropriation: the first user of a resource has a better claim than latecomers.
- Contractual transfer: Ownership may be acquired by consensual title transfer from a previous owner.
- Rectification: transfer as a result of a tort or offense (use of another person’s property without consent (trespass)) 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 an offense.
- 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.
