Glossary

Private property

The right of individuals and organizations to own, use, exchange and exclude others from assets, a pillar of market economies.

Also called: property rights, ownership rights

Private property is the legal and moral right of individuals and groups to own things, use them, sell or give them away and keep others from using them without permission. It covers land, homes, businesses, savings and intellectual creations.

John Locke argued that people acquire property by mixing their labor with unowned resources, making property a natural rights counterpart of life and liberty. The Fifth Amendment protects property from being taken without due process and just compensation, and the Fourteenth Amendment extends the protection to the states. Economists such as Adam Smith and Hayek have argued that secure property rights encourage investment, trade and growth and are a foundation for economic freedom.

Conservatives and libertarians treat property rights as a bulwark of liberty and prosperity, and they criticize zoning, regulation and eminent domain when they believe they overreach. Others argue that property rights are not absolute and are shaped by law, that social obligations such as environmental protection justify limits, and that unequal wealth gives some people more power. Socialist thinkers favor collective ownership of major assets. Most legal systems balance protection with regulation.

Last reviewed November 8, 2026

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Related terms

Takings Clause The Fifth Amendment provision that private property may not be taken for public use without just compensation. Eminent domain The government's power to take private property for public use after paying the owner just compensation. Natural rights The idea that people possess certain rights by virtue of their humanity, which exist prior to and independent of any government. Classical liberalism A political philosophy emphasizing individual liberty, limited government, private property, free markets and the rule of law. Libertarianism A political philosophy that makes individual liberty the central value and seeks to minimize coercion, especially by government.