The Common Property Amendment, also known as the Seventh Generation Amendment, is a proposal to amend the United States Constitution to define common property and to ensure such property is protected for public use and the use by future generations. The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ...

Common property, or the physical commons, is similar in concept to the wiki commons. It consists of those things that cannot by their nature be owned by an individual or corporation. Some examples include: air, water, wildlife, and functioning ecosystems. Some public property (such as national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges) may also be included to protect the plants and animals that live there or critical ecosystem functions. In England and Wales, a common is a piece of land over which other people -- often neighbouring landowners -- could exercise one of a number of traditional rights, such as allowing their cattle to graze upon it. ... An ecosystem, a contraction of ecological and system, refers to the collection of biotic and abiotic components and processes that comprise, and govern the behavior of some defined subset of the biosphere. ... Public property is land which is owned by a local government, and is accessible to everybody. ... An ecosystem, a contraction of ecological and system, refers to the collection of biotic and abiotic components and processes that comprise, and govern the behavior of some defined subset of the biosphere. ...

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the United States Bill of Rights, currently protects private property against federal and state eminent domain actions without just compensation. The Common Property Amendment would not usurp those rights but balance them with rights bestowed to the citizenry as a whole for the protection of the common good. Amendment V (the Fifth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, is related to legal procedure. ... Image of the United States Bill of Rights from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration The United States Bill of Rights consists of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. ... Eminent domain (U.S.), compulsory purchase (United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland), resumption (Australia) or expropriation (Canada, South Africa) in common law legal systems is the inherent power of the state to expropriate private property, or rights in private property, without the owners consent, either for its own use or... The common good is a term that can refer to several different concepts. ...

Proposed Text

Bibliography

All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life, LaDuke, W., South End Press, 1999.

External References

Seventh Generation Busiahn, T., Goree, R., and Lyon, S., accessed February 3, 2007.

Law of the Land Orr, D. W., Orion Magazine, January/February 2004.

We Need a Seventh Generation Amendment LaDuke, W., 1997.

A Smart Proposal: The Seventh Generation Amendment to the Constitution LaDuke, W., excerpt from All Our Relations, 1999.