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Cole, Daniel H. --- "New Forms of Private Property: Property Rights in Environmental Goods" [2010] ELECD 388; in Bouckaert, Boudewijn (ed), "Property Law and Economics" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Property Law and Economics

Editor(s): Bouckaert, Boudewijn

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847205650

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: New Forms of Private Property: Property Rights in Environmental Goods

Author(s): Cole, Daniel H.

Number of pages: 45

Extract:

11 New forms of private property: property
rights in environmental goods
Daniel H. Cole


1. Introduction
A property right is a form of power ­ as Denman (1978, p. 3) puts it, `a
sanction and authority for decision-making' ­ over resources. Dasgupta
(1982, p. 38) refers to property as `a set of rights to control assets,' includ-
ing environmental goods. Scholars have long recognized that the nature,
extent, and allocation of property rights can significantly affect the rate
of resource depletion and degradation. In the 4th century b.c.e., Aristotle
(1941, sec. 1262b34­35) wrote, `that which is common to the greatest
number has the least care bestowed on it.' His observation has resonated
throughout history, and today is understood (after Hardin, 1968) as `the
tragedy of the commons.'
Despite Aristotle's early warning, many environmental goods never
have been subject to private ownership, for a variety of economic, tech-
nological, political and cultural reasons. Writing 350 years after Aristotle,
the Roman poet Ovid (1992, p. 111) put these words in the mouth of
Daedalus: `Though he may possess everything, Minos does not possess
the air.' Indeed, according to Roman Law, it was against natural law for
any individual, even the emperor, to own the air or other important envi-
ronmental goods. The Institutes of Justinian (Grapel, 1994, p. 50), com-
piled one thousand years after Aristotle, decreed, `[b]y the law of nature
these things are common to mankind ­ the air, running water, the sea and
consequently the shores ...