Right to property
[1][need quotation to verify] The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is credited as a significant precedent for the legal protection of individual property rights.
In all human rights instruments, either implicit or express restrictions exist on the extent to which property is protected.
Article 21 also provides that "in case of spoliation the dispossessed people shall have the right to the lawful recovery of its property as well as to adequate compensation".
Their suggestion was opposed, but was enshrined in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, which was negotiated at the same time and adopted one year before the UDHR in 1948.
[10] Article 23 of the declaration states: Every Person has the right to own such private property as meets the essential needs of decent living and helps to maintain the dignity of the individual and of the home.
(2) No one shall be deprived of his property except upon payment of just compensation, for reasons of public utility or social interest, and in the cases and according to the forms established by law.
(2) The preceding provisions shall not, however, in any way impair the right of a State to enforce such laws as it deems necessary to control the use of property in accordance with the general interest or to secure the payment of taxes or other contributions or penalties.
[3] The highest economic compensation following a judgment of the Strasbourg Court on this matter was given (1,3 million euro) in case Beyeler v.
[19][20] The Supreme Court also ruled that the states cannot acquire individual land unless there is a clear legal framework.
Unequal distribution of wealth often follows line of sex, race and minorities, therefore property rights may appear to be part of the problem, rather than as an interest that merits protection.
[citation needed] The Levellers emerged as a political movement in mid-17th century England in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation.
They believed that property which had been earned as the fruit of one's labour was sacred under the Bible's commandment "thou shall not steal".
[26]The views of the Levellers, who enjoyed support amongst small-scale property-owners and craftsmen, were not shared by all revolutionary parties of the English Civil War.
They argued that this type of property ownership constituted a "stake in society", which entitles men to political power.
They believed that political freedom could only be secured by individuals, such as craftsmen, engaging in independent economic activity.
[25][27] Levellers were primarily concerned with the civil and political rights of small-scale property owners and workers, whereas the Diggers, a smaller revolutionary group led by Gerrard Winstanley, focused on the rights of the rural poor who worked on landed property.
The working class (which increased dramatically with the Industrial Revolution) and industrialists remained effectively excluded from the political system.
[28][29] The English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) developed the ideas of property, civil and political rights further.
American revolutionaries, such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, opposed universal suffrage, advocating votes only for those who owned a "stake" in society.
Articles 3 and 6 declared that "all citizens have the right to contribute personally or through their representatives" in the political system and that "all citizens being equal before [the law], are equally admissible to all public offices, positions and employment according to their capacity, and without other distinction than that of virtues and talents".
[32] According to the French revolutionary Abbé Sieyès, "all the inhabitants of a country should enjoy the right of a passive citizen... but those alone who contribute to the public establishment are like the true shareholders in the great social enterprise.
Sieyes wanted to see the rapid expansion of commercial activities and favoured the unrestricted accumulation of property.
Robespierre's views were eventually excluded from the French Constitution of 1793 and a property qualification for civil and political rights was maintained.
