Free US Law Dictionary

Expropriation

Expropriation refers to confiscation of private property to establish social equality. This is a politically motivated and forceful redistribution of private property, taking wealth from the rich to feed the poor in order to establish social justice, in the Robin Hood style.

Unlike eminent domain, expropriation takes place beyond the common law legal systems and refers to socially-motivated confiscations of any property rather than to taking away the real estate. No compensation to owners is given. The term appears as "expropriation of expropriators (ruling classes)" in marxist theory, or as slogan "Loot the looters!", very popular during Russian October Revolution [1]

The term often refers to nationalization campaigns by communist states, such as dekulakization and collectivization in the USSR [2]. It may also refer to robberies by revolutionaries to fund their political activities, such as robberies by Joseph Stalin and Kamo in Russian Empire [3].