Land and law: reciprocal rights and duties in private property

Abstract

The paper aims to explore the property concept as one which includes the definition of rights and duties. It is important to discuss this concept in an attempt to improve the present discussion about the appropriation and exploitation of natural resources such as land in general and farm land in particular. The responsibility associated with rights and, thus, its conception in reciprocal terms, is present in some of the main works of economic thought. In developed societies legal rules play an important role in the definition of rights and reciprocal duties. This importance justifies the contact with and the analysis of the legal rules that define property rights in a specific case – that of Portugal. The previous considerations reveal the approach adopted in property rights study and can be summed up in three words: memory, plurality and (legal) reality. These options offer an essay for the analysis of rights in its human dimension, including, as a final note, some ethical considerations that involve man-nature relations.