Ownership as an Expression of the Legal Person
Ownership as an Expression of the Legal Person
The struggle to defend ownership of their lands, based on Law 70 of 1993, produced the Black communities’ demands for their cultural identity. In order to understand this phenomenon, I draw in a general sense from the thinking of Hegel, for whom property is an immediate affirmation of the will of a legal person over a thing.
The predicate of “mine,” which is in and of itself an abundantly practical predicate which the THING receives by being judged to be a possession, first through external appropriation, means here that I instill in it my personal will. Through this determination, the possession becomes property, the medium of which is possession but the purpose of which is the existence of the personality (Hegel 1997: §489).
Property is the immediate material expression in which the legal person is reflected. It is the medium through which [the legal person] appears before the society of property owners seeking Property is the immediate material expression in which the legal person is reflected. It is the medium through which [the legal person] appears before the society of property owners seeking
Through his work, man transforms the natural reality by giving it a face and a human form. This process of “formation,” in turn, makes the person define his own identity and his own face. Through their work, men imprint their particular image onto natural objects, building a human and cultural world that allows them to find themselves, define themselves as a community, and at the same time build a world in which to pursue their own interests and agendas. In this sense, the struggle for land ownership and the defense of traditional methods of production constitute an effort by the communities to conserve the habitual forms of work and relationship that have de- fined and shaped their cultural world.
Because property expresses or reflects legal personhood, as the Peace Communities receive ownership over their lands, they also receive their recognition as legal persons and members of society equipped with rights and duties. As a result, property is not something adjectival, but rather fundamental to the subject himself, since it is through [property] that he becomes a man and allows others to recognize him as such.
I agree with the German author that the law is the realization of liberty in the concrete world of customs, traditions and community and that, therefore, legal defense of the property of the Black communities implies respect for the very freedom of the concrete men who produce their cultural life through their property. In light of these reflections, the activity of the Peace Communities is an affirmation of a social and political position in defense of liberty which is penetrated by the affirma- tion of their rights as free citizens. Their demands seek not only the fulfillment of their own private interests, but rather propose the affirmation of political principles that affect the freedom of society as a whole. By reclaiming their citizenship, they seek the construction of the state, that is, a political community that recognizes the freedom of different communities and social groups to build their lives according to their own perspective.