It is worth noting that the historical development of the notion of private property and its juridical protection largely arise out of challenges to it, attempts to confiscate, expropriate, or control it by both common thieves and despots. In this way, it may be argued that ones hold of ones property is something prior to law, something that law is formulated to protect and something that it is an instinctive notion of justice to protect when this innate sensibility is somehow challenged.
Robert A. Sirico, "The Rights to Private Property and Religious Liberty: Mutually Reinforcing Bonds," Journal of Markets & Morality 19, no. 2 (Fall 2016): 457-467