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Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have
made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and
property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in
the first place.
What Is Law?
What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the
individual right to lawful defense.
Each of us has a natural right—from God—to defend his
person, his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic
requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is
completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two.
For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality?
And what is property but an extension of our faculties?
If every person has the right to defend—even by force—his
person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group
of men have the right to organize and support a common force
to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collec-
tive right—its reason for existing, its lawfulness—is based on
individual right. And the common force that protects this collec-
tive right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other
mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an
individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty,
or property of another individual, then the common force—for
the same reason—cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person,
liberty, or property of individuals or groups.
Such a perversion of force would be, in both cases, contrary
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to our premise. Force has been given to us to defend our own
individual rights. Who will dare to say that force has been given
to us to destroy the equal rights of our brothers? Since no indi-
vidual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the
rights of others, does it not logically follow that the same princi-
ple also applies to the common force that is nothing more than
the organized combination of the individual forces?
If this is true, then nothing can be more evident than this:
The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense.
It is the substitution of a common force for individual forces.
And this common force is to do only what the individual forces
have a natural and lawful right to do: to protect persons, liber-
ties, and properties; to maintain the right of each, and to cause
justice to reign over us all.
A Just and Enduring Government
If a nation were founded on this basis, it seems to me that
order would prevail among the people, in thought as well as in
deed. It seems to me that such a nation would have the most
simple, easy to accept, economical, limited, non-oppressive, just,
and enduring government imaginable—whatever its political
form might be.
Under such an administration, everyone would understand
that he possessed all the privileges as well as all the responsibili-
ties of his existence. No one would have any argument with gov-
ernment, provided that his person was respected, his labor was
free, and the fruits of his labor were protected against all unjust
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attack. When successful, we would not have to thank the state
for our success. And, conversely, when unsuccessful, we would
no more think of blaming the state for our misfortune than
would the farmers blame the state because of hail or frost. The
state would be felt only by the invaluable blessings of safety pro-
vided by this concept of government.
It can be further stated that, thanks to the non-intervention
of the state in private affairs, our wants and their satisfactions
would develop themselves in a logical manner. We would not see
poor families seeking literary instruction before they have bread.
We would not see cities populated at the expense of rural dis-
tricts, nor rural districts at the expense of cities. We would not
see the great displacements of capital, labor, and population that
are caused by legislative decisions.
The sources of our existence are made uncertain and pre-
carious by these state-created displacements. And, furthermore,
these acts burden the government with increased responsibili-
ties. 
The Complete Perversion of the Law 
But, unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its
proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper func-
tions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and
debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has
acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been
used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihi-
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lating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting
and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The
law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the
unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, lib-
erty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a
right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful
defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.
How has this perversion of the law been accomplished?
And what have been the results?
The law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely
different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy. Let us
speak of the first. 
A Fatal Tendency of Mankind
Self-preservation and self-development are common aspi-
rations among all people. And if everyone enjoyed the unre-
stricted use of his faculties and the free disposition of the fruits
of his labor, social progress would be ceaseless, uninterrupted,
and unfailing.
But there is also another tendency that is common among
people. When they can, they wish to live and prosper at the
expense of others. This is no rash accusation. Nor does it come
from a gloomy and uncharitable spirit. The annals of history bear
witness to the truth of it: the incessant wars, mass migrations,
religious persecutions, universal slavery, dishonesty in com-
merce, and monopolies. This fatal desire has its origin in the
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