👉The table of contents so far is here.
Chapter 5: The System of Civic Law
5.4. Property Rights Law -part 1-
In the communist civic law that governs a non-monetary economic society, property rights law has less weight than citizenship law, but it does not become nonexistent. The system of property rights law is fundamentally divided into the law of obligations and the law of property, but their substance is very different.
In particular, the contract law, which belongs to the law of obligations, will completely change its substance because the sales contract, which is overwhelmingly essential in a monetary economy, will disappear in a communist society that does not assume a monetary economy.
The exchange contract, which is the prototype of the sales contract, will remain, but it will provide the legal basis for barter, which replaces buying and selling with money. In fact, in a communist society, barter will be revived and its means will diversify, such as through the use of electronic systems, so provisions will be placed in civic law to guarantee the safety of barter transactions in such diverse forms.
On the other hand, in the case of loan-type contracts, the lease contract, which is a paid loan agreement, disappears and a free loan-for-use agreement becomes the basic type. Loans for use are often customary verbal agreements, but under communist property law, verbal loans for use are not recognized as having legal effect; only loans for use based on a written contract are given legal effect.
In addition, the loan-for-consumption contract, which has often been the cause of economic tragedies such as bankruptcy, will be abolished because it requires the return of the same type of equivalent item, as is the case in a money loan relationship in a monetary economy.
In contrast to the above, while the concept of ownership is maintained in the field of property law, possession rights, which are a de facto state of possession, are given priority. However, this is not because the existence of ownership is presumed in a state of possession, but rather the intention is to guarantee possession itself as an inherent property right.
Communist ownership does not essentially mean absolute control through ownership, but merely refers to the right to assert the removal of interference because of a particularly strong grip within the broad definition of possession rights. Therefore, it applies mainly to items related to daily necessities of life: food, clothing, and shelter.
On the other hand, the system of secured property rights such as mortgages and pledges, which wreak havoc in conjunction with consumer loan contracts as a financial means in a monetary economy and can lead to the loss of one's means of livelihood, is also abolished, so the types of property rights under communist property law are limited.
👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.
