Undiscovered land

[airborne]

Jonny discovers and Island. People start arriving at this Island, and now David and Josh both find the same place appropriate to building their home on. Who has a right to the specific piece of land?

The Government is just beginning to setup and no one owns any land yet. This scenario could also be applied to finding inhabitable land in space.

[softwareNerd]

How big is the island?

Is Jonny doing something there, or did he discover it only in the sense of knowing it exits, and nothing more than that?

[airborne]

The Island is 100km by 100km. David and Josh refuse to find somewhere else or compromise. Who would have/acquire a right to this land under following contexts:

a)Johnny - the island's discoverer is also setting up his home on this Island, at another location.

b)Johnny found the island and left, he doesn't want to hear about it.

Edited September 12, 2007 by airborne

[softwareNerd]

Jonny is out of the picture, since he never laid any type of implicit or explicit claim to the island. So, we're focused on the other two. Is that correct?

So, the issue, stated abstractly is this: what if two people lay claim to some property at exactly the same time.

Sometimes, this question is framed as follows (albiet made outdated by telegraph, telephones and the internet): should the door of the patent office be made only wide enough for a single person to enter?

Are you primarily concern about such simultaneous claims?

[airborne]

Jonny is out of the picture, since he never laid any type of implicit or explicit claim to the island. So, we're focused on the other two. Is that correct?

Correct.

So, the issue, stated abstractly is this: what if two people lay claim to some property at exactly the same time.

Yes, what if two people lay the claim at the same time?

In the case of David discovering the land first then he would have the right to stake a claim, correct? And if Johnny(the discoverer) wanted to he could lay claim to the whole Island?

Edited September 12, 2007 by airborne

[DavidOdden]

Yes, what if two people lay the claim at the same time?

The procedural notion of laying a claim depends on an existing law, so you'd have to start there. The chances of absolute simultaneity (modulo measurment limitations) is low, but it could happen. Because of that, the law ought to explicitly address the question. But if it doesn't, it seems that the claim are equally valid, which would justify a 50-50 division of the land.

In lieu of a superordinate government, the "natural law" principle would be that you must use the land. De minimis, this means fencing and marking as proof of claim. Simply "claiming" the land is meaningless apart from a legal context that establishes an orderly objective procedure for taking ownership of unowned land.