Libertarianism and Original Appropriation Homesteading: Response to Dominiak

Abstract

What is the ultimate justification for private property rights? How do they first legitimately come into being? Both Dominiak and I reject the usual explanation: they come into existence based upon a grant of executive privilege, based upon the will of the king or the democratic legislature. For this leaves open the issue of why either of them have the right to grant private property rights in the first place. Dominiak claims this is based upon first or prior possession. In the present paper I will criticize that alternative, and defend the John Lockean notion of “mixing labor” with land and natural resources as a means of coming to own them via homesteading.