Editing Homestead principle (section)

=== Murray Rothbard ===
{{anarcho-capitalism sidebar|concepts}}
Libertarian philosopher and [[Austrian School]] economist [[Murray Rothbard]] argued that homesteading includes all the rights needed to engage in the homesteading action, including nuisance and [[pollution]] rights. He writes:
:Most of us think of homesteading unused resources in the old-fashioned sense of clearing a piece of unowned land and farming the soil. ... Suppose, for example, that an airport is established with a great deal of empty land around it. The airport exudes a noise level of, say, {{mvar|x}} decibels, with the sound waves traveling over the empty land. A housing development then buys land near the airport. Some time later, the homeowners sue the airport for excessive noise interfering with the use and quiet enjoyment of the houses.

:Excessive noise can be considered a form of aggression but in this case the airport has already homesteaded {{mvar|x}} decibels worth of noise. By its prior claim, the airport now "owns the right" to emit {{mvar|x}} decibels of noise in the surrounding area. In legal terms, we can then say that the airport, through homesteading, has earned an easement right to creating {{mvar|x}} decibels of noise. This homesteaded easement is an example of the ancient legal concept of "''prescription''", in which a certain activity earns a prescriptive property right to the person engaging in the action.<ref name=Rothbard-1997>{{cite book |last=Rothbard |first=Murray N. |year=1997 |title=Applications and Criticism from the Austrian School |publisher=Elgar |place=Cheltenham, UK |isbn=1858985706}}</ref>

Rothbard interpreted the physical extent to which a homesteading act establishes ownership in terms of the relevant "technological unit", which is the minimal amount necessary for the practical use of the resource. He writes:
{{Quote|If A uses a certain amount of a resource, how much of that resource is to accrue to his ownership? Our answer is that he owns the technological unit of the resource. The size of that unit depends on the type of good or resource in question, and must be determined by judges, juries, or arbitrators who are expert in the particular resource or industry in question.<ref name=Rothbard-1997/>}}