充满智慧、幽默的哈佛大学公开课-第7讲这是我的土地(20)

但这些人类法律合法的唯一前提就是尊重我们的自然权利，尊重我们不可剥夺的生命、自由和财产权 。没有任何议会或立法机构，不管其宣称自己如何民主，能合理侵犯我们的自然权利。
This idea that no law can violate our right to life, liberty, and property would seem to support the idea of a government so limited that it would gladden the heart of the libertarian after all.
But those hearts should not be so quickly gladdened because even though for Locke the law of nature persists once government arrives, even though Locke insists on limited government, government limited by the end for which it was created, namely the preservation of property.
任何法律都不能侵犯生命自由和财产权的观点似乎是支持"有限政府"这一观点的，这点无疑很讨自由主义者欢心。但他们不该高兴得那么早，因为在洛克看来，即便政府建立了自然法还是延续的，即便洛克坚持"有限政府"观点，政府最终受限于它的创建初衷，即保护我们的财产权，
Even so, there is an important sense in which what counts as my property, what counts as respecting my life and liberty are for the government to define. That there be property, that there be respect for life and liberty is what limits government.
即便如此，还有个重要问题，即怎样才算我们的财产，怎样才算尊重我们的生命与自由，这是由政府来界定的。对财产的界定，对生命与自由尊重的界定就是限制政府的因素。