Intellectual Property as Self-Ownership

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz fought fiercely to claim ownership of her intellectual output—her poetry, theology, and philosophical arguments—at a time when women's minds were considered communal property of the Church and state. She articulated through her work that the freedom to think, write, and publish is inseparable from personal liberty. In libertarian justice, this concept recognizes that intellectual labor produces genuine property that deserves legal protection. Sor Juana's tradition illuminates how denying intellectual property rights denies the fundamental freedom to benefit from one's own mental work. Applied today, this challenges both authoritarian censorship and systems that exploit creators without compensation, establishing that true libertarian justice must protect the property rights arising from intellectual endeavor as fiercely as physical property.