Sunday, August 17, 2008

Property Rights: Going, Going, Gone.

The right to own property stems from your right to own yourself. You come to own anything you 'mix your labour with', as Locke put it. Positive law has enshrined it many important documents, for instance the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 17
  1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
  2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property
This is all well and good, until you continue reading...

Article 25
  1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment...
Article 26
  1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages...
Articles 25 and 26 violate Article 17. If education shall be free, then the only way for this to happen is if teachers work for nothing at the whims of students (slavery), of if people are arbitrarilty deprived of their property to pay for education.

The European Union has solved this conumdrum in its Charter of Fundamental Rights:

Article 17
  1. Everyone has the right to own, use, dispose of and bequeath his or her lawfully acquired possessions. No one may be deprived of his or her possessions, except in the public interest [...] The use of property may be regulated by law in so far as is necessary for the general interest.
See what they did there? Notice the phrases "public interest" and "general interest". I would have thought letting individuals keeps their property was in the general interest. I guess I'm wrong. Of course it will be governments to decide what is the public interest, and what arbitrary payment is consistent with the common good.

The way things are going, it won't be long before we see this in print:
  1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
  2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property
  3. The right to own property shall be reserved to government, and shall be used as it sees fit

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Simple .The EU are the next big commie Federalist state.Be productive pay taxes make one mistake take your house to pay for said mistake.
Do nothing ,pay nothing house provided at the expense of the private owner taxpayer.
Welcome to commie ,pc ridden,vote buying altruist Europe.