Abstract:
Property has always been a privilege of a few and not a right of the humankind, and the
lack of it makes men and women vulnerable.1 Those who do not enjoy rights relating to
property need the fundamental protection of the law in respect to security of ownership
and user rights. Many domestic laws2 and international and regional human rights
documents3 recognize the rule to respect and guarantee the right to ownership, thus
recognizing property as part and parcel of the autonomy and ethical integrity of a person.
However, the very concept of the rule of law, which has been introduced to counter
arbitrariness of the powerful, can buttress arbitrariness via discriminatory laws. These
laws change property into a ‘means’ to create a distinction among people and suppress the
rights of some of them. Patriarchy has effectively used property as a means to disempower
and discriminate women through law. Some property laws in Sri Lanka provide
illustrations for the point.
