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Rapaczynski, Andrzej --- "Can Constitutions Protect Private Property Against Governmental Predation?" [2004] ELECD 106; in Colombatto, Enrico (ed), "The Elgar Companion to the Economics of Property Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to the Economics of Property Rights

Editor(s): Colombatto, Enrico

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781840649949

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Can Constitutions Protect Private Property Against Governmental Predation?

Author(s): Rapaczynski, Andrzej

Number of pages: 25

Extract:

9 Can constitutions protect private property
against governmental predation?
Andrzej Rapaczynski*


Why is property a value?
There is considerable confusion about the values that property rights are
supposed to serve. It is possible, of course, to value the institution of private
property for its own sake. It might be fun, for example, to be able to exclude
other people from the use and enjoyment of certain things. But this is not the
kind of feeling that is likely to inspire great respect for the institution of
private property and convince a nation's lawgivers to place it among the
specially protected values in the country's constitution. The reason why
private property is considered important usually refers to some other values
that it is supposed to serve. And it may be useful to look at some of these
values briefly, for they are quite a motley of different things and, conse-
quently, private property may be viewed by different people as good or bad
for a whole variety of different reasons.

Personality or `expressive' theory of property
According to this view, property is important because it plays a vital role in
the definition, and perhaps realization, of human personality. This view is
often cited in the context of intellectual property: an author of a book, for
example, has a very special relation to his creation. The book (in the ideal
sense, protected by copyright laws) is not just an object in the world; it is a
reflection of the author' ...