Right to private property in the context of "Public interest"

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property, and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various and sometimes conflicting views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support private property, market economies, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern history.

Liberalism became a distinct movement in the Age of Enlightenment, gaining popularity among Western philosophers and economists. Liberalism sought to replace the norms of hereditary privilege, state religion, absolute monarchy, the divine right of kings and traditional conservatism with representative democracy, rule of law, and equality under the law. Liberals also ended mercantilist policies, royal monopolies, and other trade barriers, instead promoting free trade and marketization. The philosopher John Locke is often credited with founding liberalism as a distinct tradition based on the social contract, arguing that each man has a natural right to life, liberty and property, and governments must not violate these rights. While the British liberal tradition emphasized expanding democracy, French liberalism emphasized rejecting authoritarianism and is linked to nation-building.

Rerum novarum, or Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor, is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891. It is an open letter, passed to all Catholic patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops, which addressed the condition of the working class. It discusses the relationships and mutual duties between labor and capital, as well as government and its citizens. Of primary concern is the need for poverty amelioration of the working class. It supports the rights of labor to form trade unions, and rejects socialism and laissez-faire capitalism, or unregulated, brutal capitalism, while affirming the right to private property and to a living wage.

A foundational text of modern Catholic social teaching, many of the positions in Rerum novarum are supplemented by later encyclicals, in particular Pius XI's Quadragesimo anno (1931), John XXIII's Mater et magistra (1961), Paul VI's Octogesima adveniens (1971), and John Paul II's Centesimus annus (1991), each of which commemorates an anniversary of the publication of Rerum novarum. It also inspired Catholic activism, and influenced distributists and supporters of corporatism. Socialists generally contest the encyclical's interpretation of socialism, and some socialists, particularly Catholic socialists, interpret Rerum novarum as not rejecting socialism, argue that divine law justifies the abolition of private property, and emphasize its anti-capitalist character.