iii. Property Rights & Responsibilities

Preamble

In order to ensure stability for citizens, private property must be respected. In turn, there must be accommodation for the state, or private organizations, to handle derelict properties with tools such as dereliction, or appropriation. This section of the Responsible Government act will ensure:

Homesteading Rights

1. All citizens have the right to homestead land in official Concordian claims in accordance with Lockean Homesteading Principles, wherein
   1. the mixing of labour with land or physical space produces the source of ownership;
   2. only the improved area or volume of space can be deemed as owned by the citizen;
   3. citizens do not have ownership of the area from bedrock to sky limit, unless they have otherwise improved the area from bedrock to sky limit;
   4. zoning and building regulations, if they exist depending on districts, are respected and adhered to

Underground Homesteading Rules

1. Underground areas that are excavated by a citizen will not be considered an improvement of land, and therefore will not be considered homesteaded, unless if they are encased in an unnatural block
   1. To prevent conflicts related to underground land use, areas that are escavated and intended for private usage must be encased in a block that is not naturally found underground in vanilla minecraft*

Dereliction & Appropriation

1. Private property may be deemed derelict, if
   1. A property's reinforcements have deteriorated to x%

Notes:

* Given Concordia's goals in the past to develop its underground, there have been multiple instances where determining which empty excavated areas belonged to whom resulted in a variety of headaches, arguments, and arbitration. In order to ensure that private individuals developing the underground in close proximity to one another do not come into conflict and resolve land claims issues cleanly and amiablity, escavated areas that are not encased by a homesteader will not be considered an improvement of the land.