The Law

To this end, He has provided us with a collection of marvelous Faculties The word "Faculties" refers to our natural human powers, such as our senses, intellect, and physical capabilities.; He has immersed us in an environment of diverse elements. It is through the application of our faculties to these elements that the phenomenon of Assimilation and Appropria-tion original: "l’Appropriation." Bastiat uses this to mean the process of taking natural resources and making them one's own to sustain life. is realized, through which life travels the circle assigned to it.

Existence, Faculties, Assimilation—in other words, Personality, Liberty, Property—that is man.

It is of these three things that one can say, setting aside all demagogic subtlety Bastiat is critiquing the political rhetoric of his time that suggested rights were gifts from the government rather than inherent to human nature., that they are prior and superior to all human legislation.

It is not because men have enacted Laws that Personality, Liberty, and Property exist. On the contrary, it is because Personality, Liberty, and Property pre-exist that men make Laws.

What then is the Law? As I have said elsewhere, it is the collective organization of the individual Right of legitimate defense original: "légitime défense." This refers to the natural right to protect oneself and one's belongings from harm..

Each of us certainly receives from nature, from God, the right to defend his Person, his Liberty, and his Property, since these are the three constituent or preservative elements of Life—elements that complement one another and can-not The text breaks off here at the end of the page, mid-sentence.

Frédéric Bastiat: (1801–1850) A French economist and writer who was a key figure in classical liberalism.
The Law: original: "La Loi" The title of this treatise, wherein Bastiat argues that law is only "justice" when it protects existing rights.
Personality: original: "Personnalité" The concept of the individual self as a legal and moral entity.
Individual Right: original: "Droit individuel" The belief that rights belong to the person first, and the group only by extension.