The long-awaited book from lawprof Eric Claeys, "Natural Property Rights" (Cambridge Press 2025) has dropped.
More, after we've had a chance to read it.
Now mind you, in the hardcover edition the thing ain't exactly cheap (£100 GBP from Cambridge, or $130 from Amazon). But frankly, for an academic book the price isn't bad.
And if the table of contents and the sampler sections posted here, it looks like it will be well worth it.
Here's a summary of what you'll get:
Natural Property Rights presents a novel theory of property based on individual, pre-political rights. The book argues that a just system of property protects people's rights to use resources and also orders those rights consistent with natural law and the public welfare. Drawing on influential property theorists such as Grotius, Locke, Blackstone, and early American statesmen and judges, as well as recent work in in normative and analytical philosophy, the book shows how natural rights guide political and legal reasoning about property law. It examines how natural rights justify the most familiar institutions in property, including public property, ownership, the system of estates and future interests, leases, servitudes, mortgages, police regulation, and eminent domain. Thought-provoking and comprehensive, the book challenges leading contemporary justifications for property and shows how property both secures individual freedom and serves the common good.
- Justifies and rehabilitates a theory of property associated with labor, natural law, natural rights, Grotius, Locke, Blackstone, Madison, and Kent
- Outlines justifications for property that have influenced English and American society for centuries
- Familiarizes legal scholars, lawyers, and law students with how moral rights guide legal reasoning
Stay tuned. If the hardcover is too spendy, we understand a softcover is in the works.
