Abstract

The author presents the assumptions which form the bedrock of modern liberal property theories. It refers to the conceptions of John Christman, James O. Grunebaum, Lawrence Becker, Stephen R. Munzer and Jeremy Waldron. All these philosophers have devoted separate monographs to the problems of ownership and their works seem representative of the entire liberal current in contemporary political philosophy. This paper does not provide a detailed analysis of the authors’ views on property, but focuses on the elements that these theories share. These are: the bundle theory of property rights; the priority of distributive justice over ownership; the belief that labour is not a property entitlement; the assumption about the separation of production and distribution; the belief in the redistributive role of the state.