4 Importance of Property

Why does virtually every legal system devote its largest and oldest body of law to property?1. Economic foundation and incentives. Security of property underpins production and saving: people invest in what they are assured of keeping. The economists' lesson (echoed in your Economics course's treatment of property rights): clear, enforceable property rights internalize benefits and costs, encouraging investment and discouraging overuse.2. Credit and capital formation. Property is the bedrock of secured credit — mortgages, pledges and hypothecation convert fixed assets into working capital. Where title is undocumented, assets are "dead capital" (Hernando de Soto's celebrated analysis): a house without title cannot be collateral. This is a live issue in Nepal, where historically undocumented informal settlements and the titling campaigns of recent decades illustrate both the problem and the remedy.3. Personal autonomy and dignity. Property is a precondition of independent life — privacy, a home, freedom from dependence. The personhood theory (below) gives this philosophical depth; constitutional property clauses protect it.4. Social order and peace. Clear property boundaries prevent violence; possessory and title remedies substitute courts for self-help. "Property is the guardian of the other rights," as some put it — free speech is worth little without a press one owns.5. State revenue and planning. Property taxation, land-use regulation, land reform and acquisition for public purposes all presuppose the institution of…