Legality of private claims

In order to reason about anything you need to have some foundational principles. If those principles are wrong, your reasoning is suspect. In order to proceed with my argument, it must be understood that ownership always begins with a claim.

By what legal right can an individual make a property claim? John Locke answered with his 'Labor theory of property.' I don't accept that reasoning as valid, anymore than the discredited marxist 'labor theory of value' is valid. Labor has nothing to do with either. Did I just dispute the famous John Locke? Yes and you can as well because...

It is much more fundamental than that. Ownership is the ability to withstand challenges denying a claim of ownership. Nothing more, nothing less. Legality is simply acceptance of this fact followed by legal recognition. It doesn't matter how many pieces of paper you have saying you have title to a thing if some entity takes it away from you. It does matter if you can defend your claim. Do you accept that the Taiwanese own their property? If the Chinese take it away, would they own it? Would any discussion matter? Time would make it legal either way even if under dispute.

We think of nations making claims, but before nations existed, individuals made claims and others recognized those claims. Even owned property can become someone else's by possession. Unowned property even more so.

A claim can be, strong or weak, true or false, or just plain silly.

A claim becomes legal when you make it legal by the way you go about it. For example, a group can agree to terms. That is a legal contract. It is no violation of law to claim unowned property since that's how all property becomes owned. The point is to mitigate disputes. You do that by going about in an orderly and reasonable manner. That's all law is about.

Or are you going to accept the argument that only someone else, not you, can claim property? That is ridiculous. Free your mind.