Horizontal & Vertical Property Rights

[RCA]

Libertarians always preach about property rights. It's usually implied that the rights being preached are horizontal property rights, "where does my land end" in other words. It's rarely discussed what is the definition of vertical property rights (under the earth and sky).

[Mini-Me]

Draw lines radially outwards from the Earth's center to each corner of your property, and keep going. If you own one acre of property, you likely also own almost the entirety of some distant galaxy somewhere. ;)

In terms of underground property, the above rule actually seems pretty reasonable, though standard rules about flowing resources apply.

When it comes to airspace, taking the above rule literally is clearly absurd though. The notion of strict ownership makes a lot of sense for land, but it's a bit of a different story for the sky above your house. I mean, you don't actually own a freaking galaxy billions of light years away. ;) Instead, I think the following is a reasonable rule for the purposes of people getting along: You strictly own the sky above your property at least as high as you can build a structure, and beyond that, nobody should be able to do anything that significantly harms your use and enjoyment of your land, buildings, etc.

In other words, people can fly planes as long as they aren't polluting your land, coming too close to your buildings, or causing undue disturbance (and I'm intentionally using vague wording, because these are the kinds of issues that would have to be decided by the best judgment of a court/jury, rather than legislating arbitrary fixed distances and such). However, if it were possible, people should not be able to vacuum all of the air out of the sky above your house Spaceballs-style, harming your oxygen levels and atmospheric pressure. ;) Similarly, nobody should be able to erect a giant Independence Day-style flying saucer above your house that blocks out the sun or causes inappropriate noise levels that you wouldn't tolerate from a lateral neighbor.

In other words, I think it's best to leave vertical property limitations to subjective value judgments on a case-by-case basis, rather than coming up with (or God forbid, legislating) arbitrary rules. Once we're someday able to apply the homestead principle to the sky, the question might require a revisit...

[TortoiseDream]

Draw lines radially outwards from the Earth's center to each corner of your property, and keep going. If you own one acre of property, you likely also own almost the entirety of some distant galaxy somewhere. ;)

In terms of underground property, the above rule actually seems pretty reasonable, though standard rules about flowing resources apply.

When it comes to airspace, taking the above rule literally is clearly absurd though. The notion of strict ownership makes a lot of sense for land, but it's a bit of a different story for the sky above your house. I mean, you don't actually own a freaking galaxy billions of light years away. ;) Instead, I think the following is a reasonable rule for the purposes of people getting along: You strictly own the sky above your property at least as high as you can build a structure, and beyond that, nobody should be able to do anything that significantly harms your use and enjoyment of your land, buildings, etc.

In other words, people can fly planes as long as they aren't polluting your land, coming too close to your buildings, or causing undue disturbance (and I'm intentionally using vague wording, because these are the kinds of issues that would have to be decided by the best judgment of a court/jury, rather than legislating arbitrary fixed distances and such). However, if it were possible, people should not be able to vacuum all of the air out of the sky above your house Spaceballs-style, harming your oxygen levels and atmospheric pressure. ;) Similarly, nobody should be able to erect a giant Independence Day-style flying saucer above your house that blocks out the sun or causes inappropriate noise levels that you wouldn't tolerate from a lateral neighbor.

In other words, I think it's best to leave vertical property limitations to subjective value judgments on a case-by-case basis, rather than coming up with (or God forbid, legislating) arbitrary rules. Once we're someday able to apply the homestead principle to the sky, the question might require a revisit...

Do you own space? NO. NAY-SA DOES!