Adsum

November 2003

Property Rights

From the book, Father Connell Answers Moral Questions
by Very Rev. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R., S.T.D., L.L.D., L.H.D.

Question: Theologians tell us that if a person has damaged another’s property without any formal guilt — and consequently without any obligation to make restitution, as far as the natural law is concerned — he will nevertheless be bound in strict justice to compensation if the civil authority commands him to do so (post sententiam judicis). Now, by what authority may the civil authority command a person to renounce a portion of his private property when he is not obliged to do so by the law of God?

Answer: It is an accepted principle of Catholic theology that in certain circumstances, for the sake of the common good, the State possesses the authority to dispose of the property of the citizens. This authoritative disposition of the State then binds the citizen in conscience, even though the natural law of itself imposes no such obligation. A concrete example would be this: Without any subjective guilt a man drives his car through his neighbor's hedge, causing considerable damage. By the natural law he is bound to no restitution because formal guilt was not present. However, if the neighbor takes the case to court -- as he is perfectly entitled to do -- and is accorded a certain amount of compensation, he obtains a right to this in commutative justice. Certainly, the common good demands that the State possess such a right; for, if a person whose property has been damaged could collect compensation only when the offendcr acknowledged subjective guilt, many acts of injustice would be perpetrated, and widespread indifference toward the property of others would prevail. It is to be noted that the principle here invoked by no means implies that the State possesses arbitrary power over the property of the citizens. It is only in certain specified cases, when otherwise the welfare of society would certainly be gravely impaired, that the civil authority is empowered to supersede the individual's right to retain his private property.

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