Magazine Issue 10 - Spring 2000
Raphael Bueno has been a squatter in the New York area for over 30 years. He is a philosopher and a teacher who has trained many housing activists.

“Nine-Tenths of the Law” by Raphael Bueno

People are born and use the land and die, and many people come into the land and they start a nation. That nation disappears and a new nation comes. What gives them the right to the land?
     
It's not like the Bible says, that God gave the Jewish people Palestinia. Possession is what gives the right to the land, and possession is established by use. So, if you use a piece of land, traditionally, as a way of supporting your life, you cannot be dispossessed from it, because that's taking your life away. This is how ownership of land is understood in common law.
Common law is natural law.
     
It's not man-made. It's law that has accumulated through custom and tradition so that nobody can say 'I made it'. The common law was passed on to the American colonies from the British, who in turn inherited it from the Romans. The United States, to some degree, still functions under common law.
So let's say that a man has a deed to a piece of land, but he goes away and doesn't use it. Other people come into the land and start using it. He comes back with his deed and says, 'This is my land'. But the people who have been living there say 'No, because we are adversary to your title'. Under common law, this is known as adverse possession. After holding a piece of land adversarily for a certain number of years, you have the right to claim adverse possession. Different states have different statutory times.
     
In New York City, after 10 years, you are supposed to have the right of title. We have been in this building for over ten years. The city came here with 300 cops, helicopters, they put snipers on the roofs of the surrounding projects. They closed the highway and brought an armoured vehicle that looked like a tank. They took us out of here and arrested four people. But have moved back in and we are here to claim our right of adverse possession.

From "War in the Neighborhood" by Seth Tobocman. ISBN 1-57027-054-6 Available to order from www.autonomedia.org