Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy
Preprint, 16 Jun 2026
Billy Christmas
West Virginia University – College of Business & Economics; New York University, School of Law
Abstract
The Public Ownership Thesis is a Kantian-Rousseavian model of shared property. Its advocates argue that it is a superior model to those that can be derived from Lockeanism insofar as private property and common property cannot realise the distinct values that publicly owned property can. Resources that are sites of shared activities must be owned by the public as a whole, on this view. I argue that the various values ascribed to public ownership can be realised by common property on the Lockean model, and that the Lockean model is also better at dealing with the challenges of scarcity and disagreement that are central to questions of property rights.
Keywords: Public Property, Common Property, Kant, Locke
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6847741 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6847741
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