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Why is compensation commonly required when the government expropriates private property?

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Oil portrait of Hugo de Groot, also known as Hugo Grotius, by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, showing him with a ruffled white collar and dark clothing. — Property law Portrait of Hugo de Groot (Hugo Grotius), oil on panel by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, 1631; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

In the context of property law, the requirement for compensation when the government exercises eminent domain is rooted in the fundamental principle of fairness and the protection of individual rights against state power.12

While individual rights must sometimes yield to societal needs to provide the "greatest good for the greatest number," the law recognizes that it is unjust for a single property owner to bear the entire economic burden of a project intended to benefit the public. By requiring just compensation—typically defined as the fair market value of the property—the legal system seeks to balance the government's authority to acquire land for public objectives with the owner's right to be protected from arbitrary deprivation.23145

This requirement is widely established in international law and constitutional frameworks, such as the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which explicitly prohibits the taking of private property for public use without just compensation. This safeguard ensures that the cost of public improvements is distributed across the community rather than falling unfairly on the individual whose property is taken.1253