The Philosophy of Law: Private Right, § 12: The First Acquisition of a Thing Can Only Be That of the Soil
Private Right, § 12: The First Acquisition of a Thing Can Only Be That of the Soil
By the Soil is understood all habitable Land. In relation to everything that is moveable upon it, it is to be regarded as a Substance, and the mode of the exist ence of the Moveables is viewed as an Inherence in it. And just as, in the theoretical acceptation, Accidents cannot exist apart from their Substances, so, in the practical relation, Moveables upon the Soil cannot be regarded as belonging to any one unless he is supposed to have been previously in juridical possession of the Soil so that it is thus considered to be his.
For, let it be supposed that the Soil belongs to no one. Then I would be entitled to remove every moveable thing found upon it from its place, even to total loss of it, in order to occupy that place, without infringing thereby on the freedom of any other; there being, by the hypo thesis, no possessor of it at all. But everything that can be destroyed, such as a Tree, a House, and such lik<;—as regards its matter at least—is moveable; and if we call a thing which cannot be moved without destruction of its form an immovedble, the Mine and Thine in it is not understood as applying to its substance, but to that which is adherent to it, and which does not essentially constitute the thing itself.