Private property
Legal designation of the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Private property (disambiguation).
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities.[1] Private property is distinguishable from public property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or cooperative property, which is owned by one or more non-governmental entities.[2] John Locke described private property as a Natural Law principle arguing that when a person mixes their labor with nature, the labor enters the object conferring individual ownership.[3]
Private property is foundational to capitalism, an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.[4] As a legal concept, private property is defined and enforced by a country's political system.[5]