Homestead principle

Under the homestead principle a farmer putting unowned land to use gains ownership over it

The homestead principle is the principle by which one gains ownership of an unowned natural resource by performing an act of original appropriation. Appropriation could be enacted by putting an unowned resource to active use (as with using it to produce some product[a]), joining it with previously acquired property, or by marking it as owned (as with livestock branding).

Homesteading is one of the foundations of Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism and right-libertarianism.
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