Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf on the power of necessity to override property rights

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the “right of necessity” which Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf acknowledge as belonging to persons in direst need. I will make explicit its deontic status, justificatory basis and demands, with the aim of assessing its distributive implications. As I will show, although both authors devoted considerable attention to the question of the power of necessity to suspend, override or dissolve property rights, the distributive implications of the right of necessity they put forward were almost insignificant.