Property

Latin proprietas — ownership, a peculiarity. From proprius — one's own. The Roman dominium — absolute ownership — shaped Western property law. John Locke's labor theory of property — that mixing one's labor with material creates ownership — became foundational to liberal political theory.

Legal scholarship distinguishes a 'bundle of rights' associated with property — possession, use, exclusion, transfer. Different property regimes — fee simple, leasehold, communal, indigenous — operate with different bundles. Intellectual property extends property thinking to ideas and expressions. Indigenous and ecological critiques challenge the framing of land as property at all.