The Federalist Society: 'Property Rights: The Forgotten Spark of the Arab Spring'

Source:The Federalist Society- holding an event about the Arab Spring, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

"The Environmental Law & Property Rights Practice Group hosted this panel on "Property Rights: The Forgotten Spark of the Arab Spring" on Saturday, November 12, 2011, during the 2011 National Lawyers Convention.

Environmental Law: Property Rights: The Forgotten Spark of the Arab Spring

10:45 a.m. -- 12:15 p.m.

State Room - Overflow: Senate Room

--Mr. Hernando de Soto, President, Institute for Liberty and Democracy

--Prof. Steven J. Eagle, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law

--Prof. John D. Echeverria, Professor of Law and Acting Director Environmental Law Center, Vermont Law School

--Prof. Donald J. Kochan, Professor of Law, Chapman University School of Law

--Moderator: Hon. Jerry E. Smith, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit... 

From The Federalist Society

Property rights are essential in a democracy, especially in a liberal democracy, because it's one way people can limit the power of government, because they have property and they can limit what government can do to them. 

In America government has to have permission under law and the U.S. Constitution to enter or take property from individuals. Without property rights the State would essentially own everything. Even the Communist Republic of Cuba has now recognized the need for property rights in a functioning society.