CHAPTER I PROPERTY 1 § 1. Meaning of the Word "Property" 1 "Property," broadly defined, is any thing or things that can be owned. The term includes land, goods, chattels, moneys, and rights. The essential element of property is the right of exclusive ownership. A man's home, his dog, his clothes, his books, his desk, are all property; that is, he has the exclusive right to these things. It would seem that originally such rights to exclusive ownership could be justly acquired only by labor or by occupancy. The man who laboriously made a stone hammer certainly had a right to its exclusive use. If, before there was law or record of title anywhere, he built a shelter on unoccupied land, he was justly entitled to its occupancy as against every other man. Our system of civilization is built up very largely on this institution of private property or exclusive ownership. as: Blackstone in stately phrase defines the rights of property That sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion of every other individual.❜ In a late Illinois case, the court held that: Property in its appropriate sense, means that dominion or indefinite right of user and disposition which one may law Wherever possible, cases bearing on points brought out in the text have been selected and placed under the same section number as the subject matter to which they refer. These will be found in the back of the book under Appendix A. 2 Blackstone Comm., Chapter I. fully exercise over particular things or subjects and generally In the federal constitution and in the constitution of every state, the right to own property is guaranteed, the usual phraseology being: "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The right, however, does not depend on constitutional provisions. The right to private property is a sacred right; not, as has been justly said, "introduced as the result of princes' edicts, concessions, and charters," but it was the old fundamental law, springing from the original form and constitution of the realm.* § 2. Ownership of Property The natural ownership of property should justly arise originally from labor or occupancy. The rightful owner could then give, sell, or barter his right to another, who would have an equally good title. Such ownership is both just and natural. On the other hand, our present ownership as enforced by the courts, is not always natural and not always just, but it is always legal and depends primarily on the law of the land for its sanction. No man can naturally or morally have property in another human being, but our laws for many years recognized slavery or rights of property in men and women whereby they could be bought and sold, and compelled to forego every right of a freeman. The constitution and our laws allowed this, and our courts enforced such alleged rights of property. At the present time, our laws define and enforce certain rights of property in land, animals, contracts, privileges, inventions, merchandise, and many other things. The extent of these rights, the rules Rigney v. Chicago, 102 Ill. 77. Cooley, Constitutional Limitations, p. 436. as to their transfer, and the disposition of property after death, all depend on what is prescribed by law. As the moral ideals of the community expand, some of these rights that are legal now will doubtless be limited and modified. Much ownership of property originally came by force or fraud, but it would not be possible to correct these titles justly now. Most of those who now own property paid for it, exchanged other property for it, or inherited it, and it would be neither just nor equitable to try to correct old wrongs by dispossession of the present holders.5 This is generally recognized, and possession is said to count for nine points of the law, and statutes of limitation cut off litigation on old claims. Most disputes, wars, and contentions between nations and individuals have arisen from conflicting rights of property. Hence, to avoid or minimize disputes, as soon as any social organization or form of government was established, the ownership of property and the right to its possession and its transfer by death or otherwise were all carefully prescribed and regulated. So it has come about that we hold our property by the authority of the law, we enforce our property rights by the law, and after death the law prescribes where and how our property shall go. The matter may be summed up as follows: 1. Some titles to property originally acquired by labor, occupancy, or perhaps discovery or finding, are natural and just. 2. There would seem to be many titles existent that at some time were based only on superior force, fraud, or cunning. 3. The time comes to every people when law is established, and by way of compromise and for expediency it recognizes all the existing titles and tries to regulate future transfers and takings of title on lines of comparative justice. "Perhaps the best way of transferring private property to social ownership, would be by inheritance and transfer taxes of 100%. It would take only a single generation, thirty years or so, to transfer the bulk of all socially necessary property to the people by this method." Socialism, Berenberg. The inequity and inexpediency of any such summary annulment of property rights is obvious. |