The Plasticity of Property: Legal Transitions Between Property Rights Regimes for Different Resources
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Description
My assignment in this chapter is to address the multiplicity of forms that emerge in the broad range of property rights, in order to explain how they function, both separately and in combination. In many cases, these property regimes emerge as hybrid arrangements from earlier, simpler forms. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the mechanisms that enable these newer forms of property rights to emerge, for better or worse. The tale is one of some difficulty because of the many different types of tangible resources that are subject to property ownership: land, air, water, minerals, animals, and more. The physical properties of different resources often call for different property arrangements, so the pattern of transformation may vary by resource. It is impossible to trace every transition, but I hope to provide a reasonably full set of examples of how the process works and to explain when these transitions should or should not require that compensation be supplied to losers of previously vested rights, and, if so, by whom. The entire study is an exercise in forced exchanges introduced by law, some of which are benevolent, and some not.
Source Publication
The Changing Role of Property Law: Rights, Values and Concepts
Source Editors/Authors
Ernst Nordtveit
Publication Date
2023
Recommended Citation
Epstein, Richard A., "The Plasticity of Property: Legal Transitions Between Property Rights Regimes for Different Resources" (2023). Faculty Chapters. 355.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/355
