Boundaries of Order (Butler Shaffer)
- Highlight Loc. 486-91 | Added on Monday, December 19, 2011, 03:17 AM
Our assertion of self-ownership confronts the doctrine of eminent domain, a concept essential to the authority of all political systems. Eminent domain expresses the proposition that the state has a supervening claim to all property interests within its domain, which it may exercise at any time it chooses. Such powers are not confined to the more familiar area of real property, but include ownership claims over persons. Conscription, the regulation and taxation of one’s productive activities, control over what substances a person may ingest, capital punishment; and compulsory education, are some of the major instances of the eminent domain principle, which presumes individual interests to be subservient to those of the state. It is this doctrine that is being challenged by the development of decentralized, horizontal, interconnected social practices.
