W2 – PROPERTY I
‘Control’ is a really important word in this course, as is ‘exclusion’ and
‘transferability’. It will help answering the question of ‘I know something is property
when I see it’.
When do you have legitimate control of something?
Tangible vs intangible property.
It is unusual how we treat bank money like our own personal property yet banks
simply owe you the sum of money showed on your bank account rather than you
actually owning that amount of money.
Bitcoin for example IS a type of (intangible) property. People buy that currency and
keep it for themselves.
Human body is a sticky topic for property law. When doctors enact things on you e.g.
your cells, should we take Lockes approach and assume they own you as property
until you leave the hospital or as in pro choice supporters, people own their own
bodies and no one can tamper with it? AI is also an interesting topic; can we control
the AI as humans after we make the AI?
Life, liberty and estate 9Locke, ch2). Possessive Individualism.
The govt. in deciding when, in law, if someone can euthanise themselves even when
they are terminally ill.
Locke:
o Response to Filmer’s ‘Patriarcha’ and other scholars who thought the
monarch had Divine Rights and Royal Prerogative. He was interested in the
freedom of individual property.
o Colonisation; at his context, there was a drive to colonise and expand. But
how can you take property of land for example of tribal people?
o STATE OF NATURE: everyone has sharing of common things. God wanted us
to use natural reason to use our brains and survive.
o Labour theory. If you pick an acorn then it is yours and no one can deprive
you of that as you have used your brain and your desire to survive to go
through the labour to pick that acorn and use it for survival purposes.
o We delegate some rights to the govt (artificial rights) in contrast to natural
rights given by God. Think back to Genesis quote describing fish.
o The limits of these are that you must take what you need and not more. E.g.
if you take an apple but it gets spoilt then you deprived others of potential
property. God did not intend us to pick many apples and leave them to rot.
Leave enough for others. Money is also an exception to spoilage since you
can keep any amount of money and not waste it. We have all tacitly
consented to the existence of money to purchase and sell goods.
In contemporary society slavery and colonialism is not plausible as implicitly
advocated by Locke. But the labour theory is fairly plausible e.g. copyright; if you
make or work to gain something it is your property right.
POTTINGER ARTICLE
‘Control’ is a really important word in this course, as is ‘exclusion’ and
‘transferability’. It will help answering the question of ‘I know something is property
when I see it’.
When do you have legitimate control of something?
Tangible vs intangible property.
It is unusual how we treat bank money like our own personal property yet banks
simply owe you the sum of money showed on your bank account rather than you
actually owning that amount of money.
Bitcoin for example IS a type of (intangible) property. People buy that currency and
keep it for themselves.
Human body is a sticky topic for property law. When doctors enact things on you e.g.
your cells, should we take Lockes approach and assume they own you as property
until you leave the hospital or as in pro choice supporters, people own their own
bodies and no one can tamper with it? AI is also an interesting topic; can we control
the AI as humans after we make the AI?
Life, liberty and estate 9Locke, ch2). Possessive Individualism.
The govt. in deciding when, in law, if someone can euthanise themselves even when
they are terminally ill.
Locke:
o Response to Filmer’s ‘Patriarcha’ and other scholars who thought the
monarch had Divine Rights and Royal Prerogative. He was interested in the
freedom of individual property.
o Colonisation; at his context, there was a drive to colonise and expand. But
how can you take property of land for example of tribal people?
o STATE OF NATURE: everyone has sharing of common things. God wanted us
to use natural reason to use our brains and survive.
o Labour theory. If you pick an acorn then it is yours and no one can deprive
you of that as you have used your brain and your desire to survive to go
through the labour to pick that acorn and use it for survival purposes.
o We delegate some rights to the govt (artificial rights) in contrast to natural
rights given by God. Think back to Genesis quote describing fish.
o The limits of these are that you must take what you need and not more. E.g.
if you take an apple but it gets spoilt then you deprived others of potential
property. God did not intend us to pick many apples and leave them to rot.
Leave enough for others. Money is also an exception to spoilage since you
can keep any amount of money and not waste it. We have all tacitly
consented to the existence of money to purchase and sell goods.
In contemporary society slavery and colonialism is not plausible as implicitly
advocated by Locke. But the labour theory is fairly plausible e.g. copyright; if you
make or work to gain something it is your property right.
POTTINGER ARTICLE
