Property rights and light pollution

Edward posted on Wed, Mar 17 2010 11:04 AM

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I realize this is a purely theoretic question, but I cant seem to figure it out by myself.

Say there is property X and property Z.

X can infringe on Z's property rights by throwing his trash on Z's lawn, which under libertarian principles is a clear violation of rights. Now X burns his trash and the smoke goes over Z's property. Again a violation of Z's rights. If Z encounters any discomfort on his own property, caused by X's behavior, we can say Z's rights are violated.

Now take less tangible things, like radio waves. Some people might not like being subjected to this, but is it an violation of your property rights? I recall hearing Walter Block speak on this issue, and he commented that since there is no clear harm done, these radio waves do not violate anyone’s property rights, which sounds perfectly reasonable to me. (I could not find the sourcefile on this, so I apologize in case I did not state Dr. Block's opinion regarding this issue correctly)

Now take light. You can see property A from property B and vice versa, which means there is always some light emitted from one property to another. No violation of rights here. Now X decides to paint his house pink, so more pink light will be emitted from X to Z. Z might not like living next to a pink house, but there is no violation of rights here.

Finally X puts this up in his lawn and aims it at Z: http://static.zoom.nl/8FA998E86DD2AF1A65B05DAEE980DE8A-laser-show-awakenings.jpg

Clearly very annoying for Z, but it is still just emittance of light from one to another property, and in principle not different from any different type of lamp on your lawn.

Despite this, my gut tells me rights are being violated here.

-How can we define the border between what is considered a violation and what is not? It sounds like the line is purely arbitrarily.

-Should we contractually define maximum light emission before buying the property?

Like to hear your thoughts on this.