Property rights are not like other rights, contrary to what Madison and a lot of modern political theory says. If I have the right to free speech, it doesn't interfere with your right to free speech. But if I have property, that interferes with your right to have that property, you don't have it, I have it. So the right to property is very different from the right to freedom of speech. This is often put very misleadingly about rights of property; property has no right. But if we just make sense out of this, maybe there is a right to property, one could debate that, but it's very different from other rights.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The author distinguishes property rights from free speech by noting property exclusivity interferes with others rights
- In plain terms
- Property rights differ from speech rights because they exclude others.
- What can you take from it?
- Property is not an absolute right like speech.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes a right valid?
- How do rights conflict?
Another view
Legal theory often treats all rights differently than the quote suggests.
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