Complex Individualism and the legitimacy of Property Right

François Facchini

Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) from HAL

Abstract: In this article my purpose is to go thoroughly into the ideas expressed by economists regarding the legitimacy of absolute property rights. I visit the Lockian argument taken up by Murray Rothbard (1.1) and the principle of the finder keeper clarified by Israel Kizner (1.2). I argue that it is impossible to legitimate either the property of the finder keeper or the property of oneself if man does not think of himself as an individual. Indeed individualism becomes the cultural prerequisite required to acknowledge the rights of the finder keeper and the goods obtained through labour. Here, Hayek's complex individualism is akin to the hypothesis of the social animal of Benjamin Constant and the work of Gabriel Tarde on the transformation of law. The individual is both an effect and a cause of property rights.

Keywords: property; rights; complex; individualism; finder; keeper; cultural; evolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-01
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Published in European Journal of Law and Economics, 2002, 13 (1), pp.35-46. ⟨10.1023/A:1013161808255⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-01286798

DOI: 10.1023/A:1013161808255

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