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 his 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 collective right- its reason for existing, its lawfulness- is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective 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.
The Law by Frederic Bastiat
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