Critique of Law and Government

Where it surfaces

• P. J. Proudhon

  Proudhon's legal troubles, his critique of civil law as a foundation of property, and his advocacy for federalism as a check on state power are highlighted.

• I

  Proudhon critiques the authority of man over man, questioning the justice of despotism, civil inequality, and the role of law in upholding property.

• II

  The chapter critiques legal definitions of property from Roman law to the Napoleonic Code, exposing their role in legitimizing absolute dominion.

• § 1: Property as a Natural Right

  Criticizes the Declaration of Rights, the tax system, and the state for defending property rather than natural rights.

• § 2: Occupation, as the Title to Property

  Proudhon critiques legal and philosophical justifications of property, including those from Cicero, Grotius, and Reid, as failing to establish legitimate property rights.

• § 3: Civil Law as the Foundation and Sanction of Property

  Proudhon attacks civil law for creating property as a fiction, outside natural justice, and for sanctioning selfishness.

• III

  Proudhon criticizes the Civil Code and legal system for contradicting the labor theory of property.

• § 2: Universal Consent No Justification of Property

  Proudhon rejects the legitimacy of a social contract that would justify property, calling it null in justice.

• § 3: Prescription Gives No Title to Property

  The chapter attacks civil law's creation of property through prescription, calling it a fiction that exceeds legitimate legislative power.

• § 6: That in Society All Wages Are Equal

  Proudhon critiques the St. Simonian and Fourierist principles as being influenced by the property idea and as antisocial.

• Demonstration

  Criticizes the legal and economic justifications for property, including the role of civil law and economists.

• First Proposition

  Criticizes civil law for sanctioning monopoly and injustice, as seen in the discussion of Buchanan and the civil law basis of property.

• Fifth Proposition

  Proudhon criticizes economists and the legal system that upholds property and usury.

• Sixth Proposition

  The chapter critiques government as an institution that upholds property and thus tyranny.

• Seventh Proposition

  Proudhon criticizes government borrowing and taxation as a form of capitalization that perpetuates property and inequality.

• Eighth Proposition

  He questions the legislator's justice and wisdom, and dismisses laws and institutions built on the impossibility of property as shams.

• Ninth Proposition

  The chapter critiques commercial legislation and the Code Napoleon for enshrining property rights that rely on might rather than justice.

• § 3

  Criticizes civil and administrative power for upholding property-based iniquity, demanding reconstruction on political equality.

• § 2 Characteristics of Communism and of Property

  Proudhon argues that property necessarily engenders despotism and that government is impossible while property exists, as proprietors become despotic kings.

• Endnotes

  Proudhon criticizes representative government and the tyranny of talkers, linking them to the perpetuation of property and disorder.