Chapter 1: Why “Property” - Foreign Military Studies Office - U.S. Army

about its past glory, its veneration by Locke andBlackstone, or its running battles with Marx andProudhon … Mention something topical though, andproperty will be at a loss… 5The topic here is not an abstract peace, however. The topic is catchingkidnappers and bombers, stopping drug dealers and poachers,ameliorating conditions that invite rebellion, subversion andinsurgency, and winning wars.. It is about creating safe, prosperousand free societies. Still, you have to want to read about property. If itwere not so important, I would advise reading something else.What is it?“That low, bestial instinct….” 6Leo TolstoyThe rub is in the definitions, naturally, so some pedantry indefining the word property is necessary, a chore to be completedimmediately and, I hope, painlessly.Property is a contract among society and owners thatrecognizes preferential rights and correlated duties. The strengthof the social contract can be judged by the quality of itsobservance, which depends on the quality of the evidence ofownership and on the capacity of both owners and the society(usually by way of some government) to act on conclusions logicallydrawn from the evidence.The mental exercise to be mastered in understanding propertyas used here requires adopting the idea that property is not a tangible5 J.E. Penner, The Idea of Property in Law, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), p. 1.6 Simon James, A Dictionary of Economic Quotations, Second Edition, (Totowa,New Jersey: Barnes & Noble: 1984) p. 25.7