The following works deal with the idea of private property from a number of perspectives: as a “right” which all individuals have (philosophical), as the basis for the rule of law in a free society (legal), as a key aspect of any properly functioning free market society (economic), and as an important part of the emergence of free societies in the West (historical). Some of the works are critical of the classical liberal idea of property (e.g. Rousseau, Bentham, George).
| authors and editors |
title ↑ |
pub. date |
| author: Sir Henry Sumner Maine, introduction: Sir Frederick Pollock |
Ancient Law, its connection with the early history of society and its relation to modern ideas |
1861 |
| author: John Stuart Mill, editor: John M. Robson, introduction: Vincent Wheeler Bladen |
The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume II - The Principles of Political Economy with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy (Books I-II) |
1848 |
| author: John Stuart Mill, editor: John M. Robson, introduction: Lionel Robbins |
The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume V - Essays on Economics and Society Part II (Chapters of Socialism) |
1850 |
| author: Geoffrey Brennan, author: James M. Buchanan, foreword: Robert D. Tollison |
The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan, Vol. 10 (The Reason of Rules: Constitutional Political Economy) |
1985 |
| author: Gustave de Molinari |
Cours d’Économie Politique vol. 1 |
1854 |
| editor: John Joseph Lalor |
Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States, vol. 3 Oath - Zollverein |
1881 |
| author: Frédéric Bastiat, editor: George B. de Huszar, translator: W. Hayden Boyers, introduction: Dean Russell |
Economic Harmonies (Boyers trans.) |
1850 |
| author: William Godwin |
An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Vol. II. |
1793 |
| author: Adam Ferguson |
An Essay on the History of Civil Society |
1767 |
| author: Ludwig von Mises, editor: Bettina Bien Greaves |
Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, vol. 2 (LF ed.) |
1996 |
| author: Wordsworth Donisthorpe |
Individualism: A System of Politics |
1889 |
| author: Gaius, translator: Edward Poste, introduction: Abel Hendy Jones Greenidge |
Institutes of Roman Law |
160 AD |
| author: Frédéric Bastiat, translator: Dean Russell, introduction: Walter E. Williams, foreword: Sheldon L. Richman |
The Law |
1850 |
| author: John Millar |
Letters of Sidney, on Inequality of Property. To which is added, a Treatise of the Effects of War on Commercial Prosperity |
1796 |
| author: Thomas Hobbes, introduction: William George Pogson Smith |
Leviathan (1909 ed) |
1651 |
| author: Ludwig von Mises, editor: Bettina Bien Greaves |
Liberalism: The Classical Tradition (LF ed.) |
1962 |
| author: Thomas Hodgskin |
The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted |
1832 |
| author: Heinrich Rommen, translator: Thomas R. Hanley, introduction: Russell Hittinger |
The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy |
1936 |
| author: Gershom Carmichael, editor: James Moore, translator: Michael Silverthorne |
Natural Rights on the Threshold of the Scottish Enlightenment: The Writings of Gershom Carmichael |
1724 |
| author: Gustave de Molinari |
Notions fondamentales d’Économie politique et programme économique |
1891 |
| author: Francis Lieber, editor: Theodore D. Woolsey |
On Civil Liberty and Self-Government |
1853 |
| author: Immanuel Kant, translator: William Hastie |
The Philosophy of Law: An Exposition of the Fundamental Principles of Jurisprudence as the Science of Right |
1796 |
| author: Herbert Spencer, introduction: Tibor R. Machan |
The Principles of Ethics, vol. 2 |
1897 |
| author: William Paley, foreword: D.L. Le Mahieu |
The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy |
1785 |
| author: Benjamin Constant, editor: Etienne Hofmann, translator: Dennis O’Keeffe, introduction: Nicholas Capaldi |
Principles of Politics Applicable to All Governments |
1815 |
| author: Henry George |
Progress and Poverty |
1879 |
| author: Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, translator: Sir William James Ashley |
Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Riches (1898 ed.) |
1770 |
| author: Hugo Grotius, editor: Richard Tuck, editor: Jean Barbeyrac |
The Rights of War and Peace (2005 ed.) vol. 2 (Book II) |
1625 |
| author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, editor: G.D.H. Cole |
The Social Contract and Discourses |
1761 |
| author: Herbert Spencer |
Social Statics |
1851 |
| author: Ludwig von Mises, foreword: Friedrich August von Hayek, translator: J. Kahane |
Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis |
1922 |
| author: Yves Guyot |
Socialistic Fallacies |
1910 |
| author: Gustave de Molinari |
Les Soirées de la Rue Saint-Lazare: Entretiens sur les lois économiques et défense de la propriété |
1849 |
| author: John Maxcy Zane, introduction: James M. Beck, foreword: Charles J. Reid, Jr. |
The Story of the Law |
1927 |
| author: David Hume, editor: Lewis Amherst Selby-Bigge |
A Treatise of Human Nature (1896 ed.) |
1739 |
| author: Jean Baptiste Say, translator: Charles Robert Prinsep, editor: Clement C. Biddle |
A Treatise on Political Economy |
1803 |
| author: John Locke, editor: Thomas Hollis |
The Two Treatises of Civil Government (Hollis ed.) |
1689 |
| author: Yves Guyot, translator: Harriet Franc Baker |
Where and Why Public Ownership has Failed |
1912 |
| author: Samuel von Pufendorf, author: Jean Barbeyrac, translator: Andrew Tooke, editor: Ian Hunter, editor: David Saunders |
The Whole Duty of Man According to the Law of Nature |
1673 |
| author: Jeremy Bentham, editor: John Bowring |
The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 2 (Judicial Procedure, Anarchical Fallacies, works on Taxation) |
1843 |
| author: Thomas Paine, editor: Moncure Daniel Conway |
The Writings of Thomas Paine, Vol. III (1791-1804) |
1791 |
Titles (by Subject)