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Praduroux, Sabrina --- "Objects of property rights: old and new" [2017] ELECD 205; in Graziadei, Michele; Smith, Lionel (eds), "Comparative Property Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 51

Book Title: Comparative Property Law

Editor(s): Graziadei, Michele; Smith, Lionel

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848447578

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Objects of property rights: old and new

Author(s): Praduroux, Sabrina

Number of pages: 20

Abstract/Description:

The chapter addresses a central question for the regulation of property: what are the objects of property rights? The chapter undertakes a comparative examination of the main European legal traditions and their approaches to this issue. The case law of the European Court of Human Rights is also taken into consideration because it is one of the driving forces behind the ongoing process of ‘Europeanisation’ of the national legal systems in Europe. The chapter starts by briefly introducing the concepts of ‘ownership’ and ‘thing’ as understood in selected legal orders. Without providing an exhaustive analysis of all the possible objects of property rights, it considers certain categories of things whose capability of being appropriated is controversial. It concludes by considering the role of non-economic values in extending and restricting the domain of appropriable things. The chapter provides insights into ongoing transformations of our understanding of property rights, from the perspective of their objects. Moreover, it shows that the evolution of the taxonomy of property objects depends, on the one hand, on the emergence of new forms of economic interests, and on the other hand, on the public values that determine whether a thing is capable of being an object of property rights.