Abstract
In our commonplace understanding of property, the “right to exclude” is seen as its central and defining feature: to own is to exclude. This paper examines the cost, to conceptual and normative clarity, of this understanding. First, I argue that the right not to be excluded is a crucial if overlooked element not simply of liberal understandings of ownership, but even of the right to exclude itself. Second, I argue that our neglect of the right not to be excluded severely undermines the clarity and precision with which matters of ownership are debated within both contemporary politics and political philosophy.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks go to the following for their helpful comments on earlier drafts: Julie Rose, Russ Muirhead, Luke Swaine and the other participants of the Dartmouth Political Economy Project seminar; Jim Murphy, Steven Kelts, Jonathan Allen, Lisa Disch and the anonymous reviewers for CPT.
