Sir Kenneth Jupp

People should pay to society the value of what they receive from society, which is reflected in the value of the land they occupy. To allow that value to be bought and sold between private individuals is morally wrong. Land is, by natural law, the common property of the community. Taken as a whole the number of days annually that the feudal tiller of the soil was obliged to work on his lord's domain is certainly no greater and may well have been considerably fewer than the 128 days that an American is obliged to work for Uncle Sam and his state and local uncles. For his labor, the medieval peasant received, in addition to his protection, a cottage with garden field and access to the village commons. Although this system was far from perfect, it did represent a rough effort to make the tenure of land conditional upon the performance of public and social obligations. It was only when these two elements became severed that the injustices attributed to feudalism became rife. retired Justice of the British High Court 29/10/1997