Showing results for "Property Rights" in Politics & Social Sciences

The Supreme Court's decision in the Kelo case created a firestorm of interest in protecting property rights. Through real-life stories and solid legal analysis, this book shows why property rights are the cornerstone of liberty and how they are protected in the U.S. Constitution. It critically examines how courts and legislatures have diminished property rights and then lays out an agenda for protecting these rights in the future.

‘Property is Theft’, a phrase which has passed into common parlance, was the rallying call of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s political treatise What Is Property? Proudhon (1809-1865) was both admired and excoriated. A political theorist of the first order, he was vilified in his native France by the Communists and the Monarchists alike, though admired by Karl Marx as well as many in the nation’s academia and judiciary who valued the clarity of his thought and analytical method.

Through compelling case studies, including those of Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Sony, Amazon, and Google Books, Vaidhyanathan shows that the modern intellectual property systems reflect three centuries of changes in politics, economics, technologies, and social values. Although it emerged from a desire to foster creativity while simultaneously protecting it, intellectual property today has fundamentally shifted to a political dimension.