Ownership

Ownershipis the state or fact of legal possession and control overproperty,which may be anyasset,tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties.

The process and mechanics of ownership are fairly complex: one can gain, transfer, and lose ownership of property in a number of ways. To acquire property one canpurchaseit withmoney,trade it for other property, win it in a bet, receive it as agift,inheritit,findit, receive it asdamages,earn it by doing work or performing services,makeit, orhomesteadit. One can transfer or lose ownership of property bysellingit formoney,exchangingit for other property, giving it as a gift,misplacingit, or having it stripped from one's ownership through legal means such aseviction,foreclosure,seizure,ortaking.Ownership implies that the owner of a property also owns anyeconomicbenefits or deficits associated with the property.

History

Over themillenniaand across cultures, notions regarding what constitutes "property" and how it is treated culturally have varied widely. Ownership is the basis for many other concepts that form the foundations of ancient and modern societies such asmoney,trade,debt,bankruptcy,thecriminalityoftheft,and private vs. public property. Ownership is the key building block in the development of thecapitalist socio-economicsystem.^[1]Adam Smithstated that one of the sacred laws of justice was to guard a person's property and possessions.^[2]

Types of owners

In person

Individualsmay own property directly. In some societies only adult men may own property;^[3]^{[failed verification]}in other societies (such as theHaudenosaunee), property ismatrilinearand passed on from mother to the offspring.^[4]In most societies both men and women can own property with no restrictions and limitations at all.^[5]

Structured ownership entities

Throughout history,nations(orgovernments) andreligious organizationshave owned property. These entities exist primarily for purposes other than to own or operate property; hence, they may have no clear rules regarding thedispositionof their property.

To own and operate property, structures (often known today aslegal entities) have been created in many societies throughout history. The differences in how they deal with members' rights is a key factor in determining their type. Each type has advantages and disadvantages derived from their means of recognizing or disregarding (rewarding or not) contributions of financial capital or personal effort.

Cooperatives,corporations,trusts,partnerships,andcondominium associationsare only some of the many varied types of structured ownership; each type has many subtypes. Legal advantages or restrictions on various types of structured ownership have existed in many societies past and present. To govern how assets are to be used, shared, or treated, rules and regulations may be legally imposed or internally adopted or decreed.

Liability for the group or for others in the group

Ownership by definition does not necessarily imply a responsibility to others for actions regarding the property. A "legal shield" is said to exist if the entity'slegal liabilitiesdo not get redistributed among the entity's owners or members. An application of this, to limit ownership risks, is to form a new entity (such as ashell company) to purchase, own and operate each property. Since the entity is separate and distinct from others, if a problem occurs which leads to a massive liability, the individual is protected from losing more than the value of that one property. Many other properties are protected, when owned by other distinct entities.

In the loosest sense of group ownership, a lack of legal framework, rules and regulations may mean that group ownership of property places each member in a position of responsibility (liability) for the actions of every other member. A structured group duly constituted as an entity under law may still not protect members from being personally liable for each other's actions. Court decisions against the entity itself may give rise to unlimited personal liability for each and every member. An example of this situation is a professional partnership (e.g.law practice) in somejurisdictions.Thus, being a partner or owner in a group may give little advantage in terms of share ownership while producing a lot of risk to the partner, owner or participant.

Sharing gains

At the end of eachfiscal year,accountingrules determine a surplus or profit, which may be retained inside the entity or distributed among owners according to the initial setup intent when the entity was created. For public corporations, commonshareholdershave no right to receive any of the profit.

Entities with amember focuswill give financial surplus back to members according to the volume of financial activity that the participating member generated for the entity. Examples of this are producer cooperatives, buyer cooperatives and participating whole life policyholders in both mutual andshare-capital insurance companies.

Entities withshared voting rightsthat depend on financial capital distribute surplus among shareholders without regard to any other contribution to the entity. Depending on internal rules and regulations, certain classes of shares have the right to receive increases in financial "dividends" while other classes do not. After many years the increase over time is substantial if the business is profitable. Examples of this are common shares and preferred shares in private or publicly listed share capital corporations.

Entities with a focus on providing servicein perpetuamdo not distribute financial surplus; they must retain it. It will then serve as a cushion against losses or as a means to finance growth activities. Examples of this are not-for-profit entities: they are allowed to make profits, but are not permitted to give any of it back to members except by way of discounts in the future on new transactions.

Depending on thecharterat the foundation of the entity, and depending on the legal framework under which the entity was created, the form of ownership is determined once and for all time. To change it requires significant work in terms of communicating with stakeholders (member-owners, governments, etc.) and acquiring their approval. Whatever structural constraints or disadvantages exist at the creation thus remain an integral part of the entity. Common in, for instance,New York City,Hamburg,andBerlinis a form of real estate ownership known as acooperative(also co-operative or co-op, inGermanWohnungsgenossenschaft– apartment co-operative, also "Wohnbaugenossenschaft"or simply"Baugenossenschaft") which relies heavily on internal rules of operation instead of the legal framework governing condominium associations. These" co-ops ", owning the building for the mutual benefit of its members, can ultimately perform most of the functions of a legally constituted condominium, i.e. restricting use appropriately and containing financial liabilities to within tolerable levels. To change their structure now that they are up and operating would require significant effort to achieve acceptance among members and various levels of government.

Sharing use

The owning entity makes rules governing use of property; each property may comprise areas that are made available to any and every member of the group to use. When the group is the entire nation, the same principle is in effect whether the property is small (e.g.picnicrest stops alonghighways) or large (such asnational parks,highways, ports, and publicly owned buildings). Smaller examples of shared use include common areas such as lobbies, entrancehallwaysand passages to adjacent buildings.

One disadvantage of communal ownership, known as theTragedy of the Commons,occurs where unlimited unrestricted and unregulated access to a resource (e.g. pasture land) destroys the resource because ofover-exploitation.The benefits of exploitation accrue to individuals immediately, while the costs of policing or enforcing appropriate use, and the losses dues to over exploitation, are distributed among many, and are only visible to these gradually.

In acommunistnation, the means of production of goods would be owned communally by all people of that nation; the original thinkers did not specify rules and regulations.

Ownership models

State ownership:ownership of anindustry,asset,orenterpriseby thestateor apublic bodyrepresenting a community as opposed to anindividualor private party.
- Public ownership:ownership and operation of an enterprise by a central government;^[6]also anambiguous termthat could refer to either social, partial state, or full state ownership.^[7]
Private ownership:exclusive ownership of property by non-governmentallegal entities.^[8]
- Fractional ownership:ownership held in percentagesharesof an expensiveasset,sold to individual owners, who are charged fees for theasset's managementand variable use.
Collective ownership:either joint ownership of an economic entity (e.g., acooperative) or public ownership.^[9]
- Cooperative ownership:ownership by the people who together operate and trade with an enterprise.^[10]
- Common ownershipnon-exclusive ownership of property by everyone involuntarily.
Property is also distinguished by whether it is movable (personal property)^[11]^[12]or immovable (immovable propertyandreal property).
Property can also be distinguished by whether or not it is owned withexclusive rights,such rights grant owners a monopoly to refuse ownership to non-owners.
Concerning ownership ofmeans of productionand delineating which groups receive the direct profits, capitalism's private ownership is distinguished from socialism'ssocial ownership.^[13]
Ownership of resources can be distinguished as either as individual or communal, analogous to private or public in delineating who has rights of use.^[14]

Types of property

Personal property

Personal propertyis a type ofproperty.In thecommon lawsystems personal property may also be calledchattels.It is distinguished fromreal property,orreal estate.In thecivil lawsystems personal property is often calledmovable propertyor movables – any property that can be moved from one location or another. This term is used to distinguish property that different fromimmovable propertyor immovables, such as land and buildings. This also means the direct owner of the item(s) is in full control of them/it until either stolen,confiscatedbylaw enforcement,or destroyed.

Personal property may be classified in a variety of ways, such asgoods,money,negotiable instruments,securities,andintangible assetsincludingchoses in action.

Land ownership

Real estate orimmovable propertyis alegalterm (in some jurisdictions) that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such asbuildings.Real estate (immovable property) is often considered synonymous withreal property,in contrast frompersonal property(also sometimes calledchattelorpersonalty). However, for technical purposes, some people prefer to distinguish real estate, referring to the land and fixtures themselves, from real property, referring to ownership rights over real estate. The termsreal estateandreal propertyare used primarily incommon law,whilecivil law jurisdictionsrefer instead toimmovable property.

In law, the wordrealmeans relating to a thing (fromLatinreālis,ultimately fromrēs,'matter' or 'thing'), as distinguished from a person. Thus the law broadly distinguishes betweenreal property(land and anything affixed to it) andpersonal property(everything else, e.g., clothing, furniture, money). The conceptual difference is between immovable property, which would transfer title along with the land, and movable property, which a person would retain title to.

With the development of privatepropertyownership, real estate has become a major area ofbusiness.

Corporations and legal entities

An individual or group of individuals can own shares in corporations and otherlegal entities,but do not necessarily own the entities themselves. A legal entity is alegalconstruct through which the law allows a group ofnatural personsto act as if it were anindividualfor certain purposes.

Some duly incorporated entities may not be owned by individuals nor by other entities; they exist without being owned once they are created. Not being owned, they cannot be bought and sold. Mutual life insurance companies,credit unions,foundationsandcooperatives,not for profit organizations, and public corporations are examples of this. No person can purchase the company, as their ownership is not legally available for sale, neither as shares nor as a single whole.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property (IP) refers to a legal entitlement which sometimes attaches to theexpressed formof anidea,or to some otherintangiblesubject matter. This legal entitlement generally enables its holder to exerciseexclusive rightsof use in relation to the subject matter of the IP. The term intellectual property reflects the idea that this subject matter is the product of themindor the intellect, and that IP rights may be protected at law in the same way as any other form ofproperty.

Intellectual propertylawsconfer abundleofexclusive rightsin relation to the particular form or manner in which ideas or information are expressed or manifested, and not in relation to the ideas or concepts themselves (seeidea-expression divide). The term "intellectual property" denotes the specific legal rights which authors, inventors and other IP holders may hold and exercise, and not the intellectual work itself.

Intellectual property laws are designed to protect different forms of intangible subject matter, although in some cases there is a degree of overlap.

Copyrightmay subsist in creative and artistic works (e.g.books,movies,music,paintings,photographsandsoftware), giving acopyright holderthe exclusive right to control reproduction or adaptation of such works for a certain period of time.
Apatentmay be granted in relation to aninventionthat is new, useful and not simply an obvious advancement over what existed when the application was filed. A patent gives the holder anexclusive righttocommerciallyexploit the invention for a certain period of time (typically 20 years from the filing date of apatent application).
Atrademarkis a distinctivesignwhich is used to distinguish the products or services of onebusinessfrom those of another business.
Anindustrial design rightprotects the form of appearance, style or design of an industrial object (e.g.spare parts,furnitureortextiles).
Atrade secret(also known as "confidential information") is an item of confidential information concerning the commercial practices orproprietaryknowledge of a business.

Patents, trademarks and designs fall into a particular subset of intellectual property known asindustrial property.

Like other forms of property, intellectual property (or rather the exclusive rights which subsist in the IP) can be transferred (withorwithoutconsideration) orlicensedto third parties. In somejurisdictionsit is possible to use intellectual property ascollateralfor aloan.

The basicpublic policyrationale for the protection of intellectual property is that IP laws facilitate and encourage disclosure ofinnovationinto thepublic domainfor thecommon good,by grantingauthorsandinventorsexclusive rights to exploit their works and invention for a limited period.

However, various schools of thought are critical of the very concept of intellectual property, and some characterise IP asintellectual protectionism.There is ongoing debate as to whether IP laws truly operate to confer the stated public benefits, and whether the protection they are said to provide is appropriate in the context of innovation derived from such things astraditional knowledgeand folklore, and patents forsoftwareandbusiness methods.Manifestations of thiscontroversycan be seen in the way differentjurisdictionsdecide whether to grant intellectual property protection in relation to subject matter of this kind, and the stark divide on issues of the role and scope of intellectual property laws.

Chattel slavery

The term "Slavery" is commonly understood to refer to chattel slavery.

The livinghuman bodyis, in modern societies, considered something which cannot be the property of anyone but thepersonwhose body it is. Its opposite, in which the person in the body does not own their body, ischattel slavery.Chattel slavery was defined as the absolute legal ownership of a person, including the legal right to buy and sell them. Persons who were so enslaved did not have thefreedomto direct their own actions, and their legal rights were either severely limited or nonexistent. TheAntebellum periodin theUnited Statesis considered both the worst for the exploitation of chattel slaves, and also where the practice aroused such fierce opposition and support that it led to theAmerican Civil War.^[15]

Chattel slavery is currently (2020) illegal in every country in the world. However, until the 19th century slavery in one form or another existed in most societies and was thought of as the normal state of things; slaves of whateverethnicitywere consideredraciallyinferior.^[16]Notwithstanding the illegality of enslavement,virtual slaverystill exists in various forms today, although called by other names.^[17]

Critical views

The question of ownership reaches back to theancient philosophers,PlatoandAristotle,who held different opinions on the subject. Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) thought private property created divisive inequalities, while Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) thought private property enabled people to receive the full benefit of theirlabor.Private property can circumvent what is now referred to as the "tragedy of the commons"problem, where people tend to degrade common property more than they do private property. While Aristotle justified the existence of private ownership, he left two open questions

how to allocate property between what is private and common, and
how to allocate the private property within society^[18]

Modern Western views

Inmodern western politics,some people believe that exclusive ownership of property underlies much social injustice, and facilitatestyrannyandoppressionon an individual and societal scale. Others consider the striving to achieve greater ownership of wealth as the driving factor behind humaninnovationand technological advancement and increasingstandards of living.Some support the latter view, believing that ownership is necessary forlibertyitself.

Ownership society

Ownership societywas a political slogan used byUnited States President George W. Bushto promote a series of policies aimed to increase the control of individual citizens overhealth careandsocial securitypayments and policies. Critics have claimed that slogan hid an agenda that sought to implementtax cutsand curtail the government's role in health care andretirement saving.

References

^"Ownership, control and economic outcomes".Oxford Academic.
^Theory of Moral Sentiments. Ed. A.L. Macfie and D.D. Raphael. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1982, II.ii.2.3
^Brown, Rafael Dean (2021-05-04)."Property ownership and the legal personhood of artificial intelligence".Information & Communications Technology Law.30(2): 208–234.doi:10.1080/13600834.2020.1861714.hdl:10576/17794.ISSN 1360-0834.S2CID 230595377.
^"matrilineal society | Definition, Examples, & Facts".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved2021-09-02.
^"Women in Half the World Still Denied Land, Property Rights Despite Laws".World Bank.Retrieved2021-09-02.
^Ammer & Ammer 1986,p. 379.
^Scruton, Roger(2007-02-07).The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought.ISBN 9780230625099.
^McConnell, Campbell; Brue, Stanley; Flynn, Sean (2009).Economics.Boston: Twayne Publishers. p. G-22.ISBN 978-0-07-337569-4.
^Ammer, Christine; Ammer, Dean S. (1986).Dictionary of Business and Economics.Simon and Schuster.p. 83.ISBN 978-0-02-901480-6.
^Collin, Peter Hodgson (1998).Dictionary of Business.ISBN 9781579580773.
^Mitchell Miller, J (2014-04-07).The Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology.ISBN 9780470658444.
^"Personal property". Sir Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave. Dictionary of political economy, Volume 3. 1908. p. 96
^Scruton, Roger(2007).The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought(3rd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. pp.644–645.ISBN 978-1-4039-8951-2.
^Bornstein, Marc H (2018-01-15).The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development.ISBN 9781506353319.
^"The Antebellum South | Boundless US History".courses.lumenlearning.com.Retrieved2021-09-02.
^"A brief history of racism in healthcare".World Economic Forum.Retrieved2021-09-02.
^"Slavery Today".BBC.
^Politics 1263a8 15 as quoted in Mayhew 1995 p. 566

[1] "Ownership, control and economic outcomes".Oxford Academic.

[2] Theory of Moral Sentiments. Ed. A.L. Macfie and D.D. Raphael. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1982, II.ii.2.3

[3] Brown, Rafael Dean (2021-05-04)."Property ownership and the legal personhood of artificial intelligence".Information & Communications Technology Law.30(2): 208–234.doi:10.1080/13600834.2020.1861714.hdl:10576/17794.ISSN 1360-0834.S2CID 230595377.

[4] "matrilineal society | Definition, Examples, & Facts".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved2021-09-02.

[5] "Women in Half the World Still Denied Land, Property Rights Despite Laws".World Bank.Retrieved2021-09-02.

[FOOTNOTEAmmerAmmer1986379-6] Ammer & Ammer 1986,p. 379.

[7] Scruton, Roger(2007-02-07).The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought.ISBN 9780230625099.

[8] McConnell, Campbell; Brue, Stanley; Flynn, Sean (2009).Economics.Boston: Twayne Publishers. p. G-22.ISBN 978-0-07-337569-4.

[9] Ammer, Christine; Ammer, Dean S. (1986).Dictionary of Business and Economics.Simon and Schuster.p. 83.ISBN 978-0-02-901480-6.

[10] Collin, Peter Hodgson (1998).Dictionary of Business.ISBN 9781579580773.

[11] Mitchell Miller, J (2014-04-07).The Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology.ISBN 9780470658444.

[12] "Personal property". Sir Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave. Dictionary of political economy, Volume 3. 1908. p. 96

[13] Scruton, Roger(2007).The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought(3rd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. pp.644–645.ISBN 978-1-4039-8951-2.

[14] Bornstein, Marc H (2018-01-15).The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development.ISBN 9781506353319.

[15] "The Antebellum South | Boundless US History".courses.lumenlearning.com.Retrieved2021-09-02.

[16] "A brief history of racism in healthcare".World Economic Forum.Retrieved2021-09-02.

[17] "Slavery Today".BBC.

[18] Politics 1263a8 15 as quoted in Mayhew 1995 p. 566

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