Concept Of Property - Jurisprudential Perspective

Abstract

Cormac McCarthy said that ‘At one time in the world there were woods that no one owned’, when man had no selfishness and possessiveness. During that ancient period man lived without ownership and he knew no owning of things. That is why Lisa St. Aubin de Teran says, 'I knew, as every peasant does, that land can never be truly owned. The whole mankind are the keepers of the soil, the curators of trees'. But as time passed man became civilised, with the civilisation man also developed possessive nature accordingly John Locke explained that ‘Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself’. So man started claiming property as his right. James Madison rightly mentioned ‘As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights’. But in due course of civilisation man has transformed such that he could not live devoid of property. Ayn Rand also made a mention that 'Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one's rights into reality, to think, to work and keep the results, which means: the right of property'. But man should understand the reality as posed by Martin Luther King, Jr. that 'Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man'.