The Implications Of John Locke’s Concept Of Property Right

1.1 Background to the Study

I had an experience about villages in Umualor community that declare lands which had been apportioned as personal lands communal and began afresh to reapportion those lands to individuals who were ready to build houses thereby depriving the owners who had no fund to start building houses on their own portions where they already  have  other  economic  trees their rights to those lands and economic trees. Very often  the  Government  acquires  someone’s personal land for construction purpose without compensation in the name of overriding public interest. People, especially widows and orphans sometimes came  to  my office to complain about having their personal belongings claimed from them by usurpers. These experiences have inspired me to undertake a research on how legitimate property right can be acquired.

One of the problems facing philosophy today is the issue of property right. The problem focuses on property as a general term for rules governing access and control of land and material resources. These rules are disputed with regard to their general shape and their particular application. In the words of Heinrich Rommen, ‘“thou shall not steal” presupposes

the institution of private property as pertaining to the natural law’i. Consequently, there are interesting philosophical issues about justification of private property ownership despite the opinion of some philosophers. For instance, John Rawls argues that questions  about  the  system of ownership are secondary or derivative questions, to be dealt with  pragmatically rather than as issues in ethical philosophy.ii Many more philosophers have developed theories aimed at analyzing the problem of property ownership. John Locke is one of  such  philosophers. He argues that God gave  the world to men in common,  and  gave them `reason  to make use of it to the best advantage of life and convenience. There must necessarily be a means of appropriating those resources owned in common some way or  another.iii  In  line  with this, Frederick Copleston states that Locke is of the view that, though  God  has  not divided the earth and things on it, reason shows that it is in accord with divine will that there should be private property.iv John Locke undertook an intellectual excursus on justification of private property ownership. His theory of property right is built on the nature of property and the nature of the labour. Private property ownership arises from naturally existing resources through application of labour.v Labour is both the justification and the means to  have  legitimate private property. Locke’s theory also seems to place limits on the property acquisition and sets precedence to the ultimate need to protect property by means of governance. vi Previous studies on Locke’s concept of property right focused attention on analysis, clarification and evaluation of the concept of property.  Little  or  no  attention was paid to articulating its implications in daily life and applying  it to  specific situations,  hence, the need for this study. This project is concerned with issues that relate to this.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

The problem of this study is whether labour can be the only criterion upon  which property right can be based. If labour is the only criterion for claiming  property  right,  it implies that inheritance, transfer, mortgage and gift-giving cannot yield property right. On the

contrary if inheritance, transfer, mortgage and gift-giving are sources of property right, then John Locke’s assertion that what constitutes title for property right is  labourvii is  not absolute. If this is true, then Locke’s theory can only specify necessary but not sufficient conditions for an individual to become the legitimate owner of an object which has  not  previously been owned by any individual. This is the problem which this work sets out to analyze.

1.3. Thesis of the Study

In this work the author sets out to defend the fact that though labour gives  right  to private property as Locke claims, labour is not the only means of acquiring right to private property. Property right can also be acquired through inheritance, transfer, mortgage and gift.

1.4. Purpose of the study

The main objective of this study was to investigate the implications  of  labour  as  the only criterion for property right in John Locke. Specific objectives were  to:  (i)  expose  Locke’s notion of property right, (ii) investigate the implications of Locke’s position on property right and (iii) highlight the strengths and weaknesses of Locke’s concept of property right.

1.5. Scope of the Study

This research is limited to an examination of implications of John Locke’s theory of property right. It is also limited to an intellectual understanding of right to private property ownership and will not in any way lay claim to being exhaustive because learning is  an ongoing activity.

1.6. Significance of the Study

This study has both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, it  impacts greatly on the academic domain by advancing an understanding of  legitimate  claim  to property right among academics. The practical significance is that it brings to light that work output and remuneration ought to be proportional. John Locke  presents  a  philosophical  system in which labour gives one title to property right. The phenomenon of unprecedented remuneration without commensurate or proportional labour output is  addressed  in  this work.  It brings to light justice in wages which has  enormous implication in daily life, and for those in political position, civil service and free capitalist market.

1.7. Research Methodology

The research methodology adopted historical-descriptive design. Data for  the  study  were sourced from books, journals and articles. In handling these materials, the historical, expository, analytical and critical methods were employed. With the historical method, the subject of enquiry was located within historical perspective. With the expository method an attempt was made to understand the author. In the same vein, the analytical method  was used  to analyze the subject of enquiry and the critical method was used to subject his views  to critical scrutiny.

1.8. Clarification of Concept

There is the need to clarify the key variables in the topic under discussion. The term property is used to describe the legal and ethical entitlements that particular people or groups have to use and manage particular resources. Property includes the full gamut of rights to use owned resource, exclude others from entering it, and alienate it. According to Michael Weir, ‘the term property is sufficiently comprehensive to include every specie of estate, real and personal, and everything which one person owns and can transfer to another’.viii The term

‘property’ is used to describe the legal and ethical entitlements that particular  people  or  groups have to use or manage particular resources.

Right is a legal, social, or ethical principle of freedom or entitlement. Leif Wenar

argues that ‘rights are entitlements (not) to perform certain actions, or (not) to be in certain states; or entitlements that others (not) perform certain actions or (not) be in certain states’.ix Where there are rights, there are also duties. If  one  has  the  right  to  one's own  body,  then  all others have a  duty  to  refrain  from  aggressing  against  the bodies  of  others.  These  rights and duties are reciprocal. Of course, this is also John Locke’s position. He opines that  one may give up his right if he aggresses against the rights of others.   For   example,   if   Mr.  A punches  Mr. B in  the  nose,  Mr. A  gives  up  his right  not  to   be  punched   in return or not to be physically  restrained  by anyone  else  to  prevent  further  aggression.  Locke’s theory of property rights flows from this axiom.

All men may be restrained from invading others' rights, and  from doing hurt to one another, and the law of Nature be observed, which willeth the peace and preservation of all mankind, the execution of the law of Nature is in that state put into every man's hands, whereby everyone has a right to punish the transgressors of that law to such a degree as may hinder its violation.x

John Locke was one of the early proponents of this view  in  its  modern  form, xi although Aristotlexii and other ancient Greek  and  Roman  philosophers  also  discussed property rights. John Locke defined property right as right  acquired  through  fixing  of property by means of mixing personal labour with natural resources. xiii Locke's position was that  if  you  mix  your  labor  with  un-owned  resources it becomes yours. No  one  has   a   right to  use  force  to  take  it  from  you.xiv  Robert Nozick defends this in his entitlement theory of rights. xv In the researcher’s view, property right is a legal, social,  or  ethical  principle of entitlement to use owned resource, alienate it and exclude others from meddling

in it.

According to Jeremy Waldron, there are three perspectives of property right arguments: common property, collective property, and private property. In a  common property system, right to property centers on rules whose point makes property available for use by all or any members of the society. A park may be open to all for picnics, sports or recreation. Right  to  use of such common property secures fair access for all and to prevent anyone from using the common resource in a way that would preclude its use by others having right to it.xvi

In collective property right, the community as a whole wields the  right  to  determine  how collectively owned pieces of property are to be used. These determinations are  made on the basis of the social interest through mechanisms of collective decision-making.xvii

In private property right, rules guiding the use of property are organized around the idea that various contested resources are assigned to the decisional authority of particular individuals, families or firms.xviii

There might be need to define the following terms that may be found recurrent in the cause of this work:

1. Ethics is fundamentally a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct.

2. Land is any part of the earth’s surface bestowed by nature and not covered by water.

3. Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property right, in which all property is owned privately.

Beyond most general definitions of property and the right to it, is the domain of philosophical controversy. These controversies assume compounded shape especially when property right is not used to apply to the obvious cases of land and chattels.xix The topic of

this project deals with ethical principle of ownership - not of intellectual property but of tangible property - which allows a person or group of persons to retain and  use  owned resource, exclude others from using it, and or not alienate it as understood and taught by John Locke.