The Law of Justice
There is a law of Justice which if understood and applied allows to create a just society and thus preserve and develop liberty and prosperity of the people.
A just social order must be based on the Law of Justice.
What is justice? It is derived from a fundamental principle:
Step 1: The fundamental principle:
Thou shall love your neighbor as yourself.
From this follows:
Step 2: The law of Justice:
Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
From this follows:
Step 3: The Non-Aggression Principle (NAP).
How? Simple: as you would not like that someone committed an act of aggression against you and your property, so should you not commit such acts of aggression against others.
From this follows:
Step 4: The Group
Since no one individually has the right to commit acts of aggression against anyone and anyone’s property, neither has a group (no matter the size) the right to commit such acts of aggression, (because no one could rightly delegate a right they do not have).
So, as it is wrong for one person to rob his neighbor, so it is also wrong for many persons to rob him.
From this follows:
Step 5: No Taxation of Other People’s Property
Since no individual has the right to forcibly extract wealth from his neighbor, he cannot delegate such non-existent right to the group.
Therefore public taxation of private property is an act of aggression of the group against individual and his property, and thus is immoral and unjust.
And that which is unjust is evil by definition.
No society based on evil can ever persist, for it will unavoidably self-destruct.
Therefore no society based on public taxation of private property can ever endure, but will unavoidably self-destruct by corruption and violence, because it is BUILT upon aggressive violence of taxation, which is nothing more than legalized plunder, which is nothing more or less than legalized, monopolized, and institutionalized evil, written as law.
Such abomination of evil posing as law must not exist, if the society is ever to survive and prosper!
In general, any violation of the NAP, and any violation of private property is evil and unjust by definition, and any law sanctioning such violation is a legislative crime and an abomination that must not be allowed to exist, if the society is to survive and to prosper.
From which follows:
Step 6: No Regulation of Other People’s Property
Regulation is control. No one has the right to control the property he does not own, neither can one delegate such non-existent right to a group or any third party.
Therefore all public regulation of private property, except one, (that private property be not violated), is immoral and unjust.
What about anti-nuisance laws?
No one has the right to destroy or pollute anyone else’s property: neither by offensive smells, air, water or ground pollution, nor by projecting offensive sounds or images upon his neighbor’s property. So property rights take good care of environment protection and anti-nuisance laws.
What is Liberty?
Liberty is the right to do with your own property what you please, as long as you do not violate the property of another.
In other words, Liberty is anything you wish to do as long as it does not violate the NAP. (See Morality section at the end).
Thus a society built on the Non-Aggression Principle is the only just order possible. It is also the only way to have real Liberty.
Just Government
Then what about government? What is it, and what is its proper role?
To govern is to control. No one has the right to control the property he does not own. Thus any government has the right to govern or control ONLY the property it owns.
Since public representative government owns only
public property, it has the right to govern public property only, and nothing else.
What is public property?
It is property to which all citizens of a certain location have equal claim of ownership. Therefore, since the claim of ownership is equal among the citizens, the just government of such public property must be done:
- By the voice of the majority of the citizens, provided that
- Every citizen is treated equally (since all have equal claim on the public property), and
- The property of no individual is violated in the process.
How do you justly finance such public government?
Anything that is just must not violate the Non-Aggression Principle (the NAP).
Therefore the only just way to finance a public representative government is via public property user fees and voluntary contributions. User fee means you pay only if you use the property. If you don’t use it, you do not pay for it.
Again, since all citizens have equal claim of ownership upon public property, the public property user fees to be just must be:
- Explicitly agreed to by the majority of the citizens.
- Administered equally among the citizens, and
- Collection of such fees must not violate the private property of anyone.
What about justice enforcement and courts?
Anyone has an unalienable right to defend themselves and their property. No individual has the right to deprive his neighbor of such right of just self-defense.
Therefore no individual, nor group, has the right to claim exclusive monopoly on justice enforcement, for such claim would be unjust.
This means that justice can rightly be enforced by anyone, as long as such enforcement is just.
Of course, individuals could voluntarily contract with any third parties to provide such just enforcement.
What is Private Property?
Private Property is naturally derived from, and includes the self-ownership of individual. Ownership is just control.
You own you, your body, your mind, the fruits of your labor. No one has a just right to control by force that which belongs to you against your will.
A just owner of a property is either the first user of it, or a recipient of it from the previous owner via voluntary gift, bequest or sale.
What about Information or Intellectual Property?
Property claims (i.e. exclusive just control) are meaningful and non-self-contradictory only with regards to TANGIBLE property. Such claims are entirely meaningless and self-contradictory for intangible objects.
Therefore information, or intellectual property ownership is only meaningful in terms of physical, TANGIBLE copies of information.
To own information is to own a tangible copy of it. Nothing less, nothing more.
Thus every tangible copy of information constitutes a separate intellectual property, even though it might represent exactly the same information.
Thus Intellectual Property is nothing more or less than ownership of a tangible copy of information.
Assigning and enforcing “ownership” to intangible information in general, leads to irreconcilable self-contradictions, and to violations of tangible property rights, and thus is unjust.
Conclusion:
Justice is NAP, that is non-violation of private property, with implied right to use equal force to neutralize/offset the aggression against one's property. To be just, any society must have the NAP (the Non-Aggression Principle) as its core principle.
Anything that does not violate the NAP is just and has the right to exist.
Anything that violates the NAP is immoral and unjust.
What about God, morality and his laws?
The same principle applies. God is the Creator and the Just owner of the world. Therefore all who live upon it are responsible to him to use his property only in the way he approves of. However no-one has the right to presume to speak for God or to enforce his laws without his permission.
Any such usurpation by anyone must be treated for what it is: an act of aggression, and it is just to end all aggression by force, which is the definition of just self-defense.
These are the laws of Justice. Let’s build a world upon these just and holy principles.
Amen.
Connect With Us