Property rights have a history
"….promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
These hallowed, sacred words were embedded in the Preamble to the Constitution by our Founding Fathers. Today, many selfish folks who claim to be red, white and blue (true and through) patriots seem to conveniently acquire a fuzzy interpretation of these constructs as they champion so-called "inalienable property rights." They denigrate federal, state and local ecologically sound, land-use decisions as invasive hindrances and unjustified extortion.
"Unlawful or uncompensated taking" is another common bleating. Hiding behind our flag, the important thing is to keep their wallets green first, then maybe the Earth.
One must revisit Western legal heritage to find the fatal flaws in their obstinate posture. Ancient Roman law, laid down basic fundamentals for environmental ("natural") protection, requiring that the "air, running water, the sea, and consequently the sea shore" could not be owned as private property but were "common to all."
Blackstone and Woolrych, venerated British scholars of the mid-19th century, expounded upon these concepts. Via more refined modern commentaries, they addressed the evolving friction between nobles' sense of entitlement and the rightful, God-given privileges of the masses who became increasingly cut off from their inherited natural resources. They sensed that the public interest had been invaded by word or property deed granted by the king, his sovereignty be damned.
Nuisance laws were born, and Blackstone reached back to a Roman maxim for his position: "Sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedus." That is roughly translated as "use your own property, but not to the diminishment or injury of another." He thus created the foundation for subsequent laws of nuisance.
Eventually, criteria for nuisance came to include visual and auditory aesthetics, smell, etc. Each parcel is a contribution to the resource reserves, so these land-use laws are predecessors to the respectful "good neighbor policy" most folks honor.
Even recent real estate disclosure laws integrate buyer-protection of individual natural resource transactions, mandate complete revelations by the seller, his agent and brokerage, noting adverse conditions of said property for sale.
Decreed throughout most states in America, these regulatory checklists also honored a code of ethics that follows the Golden Rule, already integrated into nuisance laws. Multi-million dollar lawsuits followed the initial state passages, circa late 1980s, and complainants prevailed in test adjudications to assure future violators or damaged goods purveyors would learn by past mistakes.
Some Judge Craters also handed out substantial punitive damages just in case the lesson had fallen on dead industry ears. Everyone accepting a real estate transfer should be safe in the knowledge that their water and land are healthy safe environs.
Next time you hear or see that someone wants to revert ("A man's home is his castle, I can do whatever I want it's my property, big bad government is sticking its nose in my business," ad nauseum), keep in mind that true "greens" only ask for compliance prescriptions consistent with the incredible minds and traditions which have attempted to keep civilized, intelligent order regarding land, air and water use in place for hundreds of years.
Don't be fooled by blustery rhetoric to the contrary: The Founding Fathers vision of posterity was the future of you, your family and your community.
Roger Butow is a resident of Bigfork.