ABSTRACT

The earth is the property of the human race. The right that mankind has to the earth implies the right of individuals to occupy limited parts of the earth's surface. The impossibility of reducing all property to this sole element is especially striking in a theory that attempts to base the prerogatives of the first occupier on a moral principle. The chapter seeks to express the right of property in a general sense, that is, allowing for the particular forms it may have taken in different ages and countries. The idea of property first evokes the idea of a thing. The right of property consists in essence in the right to withdraw a thing from common usage. The right of property can be far better defined negatively than in terms of positive content, by the exclusion it involves rather than the prerogatives it confers.