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The coalition government in New Zealand intends to repeal the Resource Management Act 1991 and replace it with new legislation 'based on the enjoyment of private property rights, while ensuring good environmental outcomes'. This article considers the real possibility that the government is intending to place a theory of absolute private property rights at the centre of the new system. It argues that any policy that assumes private property rights should confer absolute rights on owners is a mischaracterisation of those rights and the law of private property. Making policy on a myth of absolute property rights is unlikely to result in good environmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The persistent and increasing domination of the state in China's contemporary capitalist development leads many to apply the vague concept of state capitalism to China's economic model. Comparing China with the earlier Asian developmental states, I discuss the distinctiveness of China's state capitalism, underlined by the state's paternalistic disposition toward capital and the weakness in private property protection. I argue that the subordination of capital to the political imperative of the Communist party-state, as well as the party-state elite's explicit reference to the state's paternalistic discipline of capital in the Qing dynasty, illustrates a connection between today's statist economic model and Qing dynasty's familial statism, under which the Manchu state conceptualized and governed the empire as an imagined hierarchal-communalist patrilineage. Comparing and connecting state-capital relations in China's past and present will help us better understand the nature of economic governance in China today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses the constitutive relations between the discourse of colonial poverty and the land reforms policies that had characterised Indian economic policy-making in the eve of its independence, in their continuities and discontinuities of interaction. By the discourse method, it identifies the particular way of knowing the reality, producing and disseminating effects of truth and bringing the players (e.g. the State) to act and intervene, thus securing the legitimacy and power of the representation, or the regime of truth - the discourse. Section I decodes the ideological dimensions, assumptions and values underlying the colonial and post-colonial discourse on poverty in India. Section II reveals its constitutive relations with the land reforms of the fifties. Section III identifies the consequent rise of the private capitalist class in agriculture, marking one of the earliest indications of the emergence of the notion of ‘hegemony’ in the Indian context - in the sense of class alliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private forest land policies in the U.S. differ by state and range from regulatory to non-regulatory. The state of California has a highly regulatory policy system to ensure sustainable forest management, and the state's family forest landowners, who hold 20% of the state's forests, navigate this regulatory system to achieve their management objectives. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 33 family forest landowners to better understand their perceptions of state forest policies, including the policies' efficacy and how they impact landowner behavior. We found that participants voiced general acceptance of California's forest policies, though they described significant concerns because of financial burdens and regulatory uncertainty. They had nuanced views regarding how the policies protect public trust resources and private property rights, suggesting that landowners' public responsibilities and private rights are not always at odds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative impacts of social media have given rise to philosophical questions around whether social media companies have the authority to regulate user-generated content on their platforms. The most popular justification for that authority is to appeal to private ownership rights. Social media companies own their platforms, and their ownership comes with various rights that ground their authority to moderate user-generated content on their platforms. However, we argue that ownership rights can be limited when their exercise results in significant harms to others or the perpetration of injustices. We outline some of the substantive harms that social media platforms inflict through their practices of content moderation and some of the procedural injustices that arise through their arbitrary application of community guidelines. This provides a normative basis for calls to better regulate user-generated content on social media platforms. We conclude by considering some of the political and legal implications of our argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Wollen (2022) is a critique of deontological libertarianism, the version of this philosophy predicated upon private property rights and the non-aggression principle. The launching pad for this article of his is the difficulty faced by conjoined twins, who diverge sharply in their view of their desirable future. The present rejoinder maintains that this author's critique fails; further, that it really has little or nothing to do with conjoined twins per se, but, rather, aims at an entirely different challenge, that of the tie or the dead heat. This latter is a critique that all political economic philosophies face, without exception, and libertarianism does no worse on this challenge than any other, the critique of Wollen to the contrary notwithstanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by basic neo-institutional economic and property law concepts, this essay points out that private property in the form of a lot is rarely an isolated piece of land due to the social nature of private property of land; and explains that private property rights of land necessarily include the negative rights not to use, to derive income or alienate. The distinction between de jure rights & duties and de facto access conditions is useful; and the number of individuals on land should not affect the nature of private property though it may affect its use. Reference is made to an interesting re-interpretation of The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Blomley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the role of the enforcement of property rights, human capital formation, and the efficiency of various components of state governments' developmental expenditure on states' economic growth and interstate income inequality. Together with private sector investment in rural areas, property rights enforcement, human capital, government expenditures on economic services, and health and education are found to have positive effects on states' growth. We also observe that the interstate difference in the provisioning of government economic services is the leading factor in contributing to interstate income divergence in India. These findings can serve as vital technical inputs for formulating economic policies to achieve faster economic growth and mitigate regional income inequality in transitioning developing economies like India and hold greater relevance for other developing economies on their way to experiencing similar social and economic transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective land property rights are the basic system in rural China, but there is debate over whether private land property rights are better at promoting land transactions and increasing farm productivity. Drawing from a quasi-experiment on ancestral land in Leizhou, a city of Guangdong province, this study analyzes the impact of ancestral land on the marketization of land rentals. The results indicate that the property rights for ancestral land tend to increase the marketization of land rentals. Specifically, compared to contracted land transactions, ancestral land transactions tend to be conducted between strangers and accompanied by a written contract, a definite contract period, and high rent. Further analysis shows that farmers with ancestral land tend to migrate and use ancestral land to produce non-grains. Moreover, farmers with ancestral land have lower interpersonal trust, which explains why they prefer market orientation over relation orientation in land rentals. Our analysis not only helps to explain the effects of varied land property rights, but also deepens the knowledge about the functions of China's land system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a critique of government interventionism based on the Misesian calculation argument against socialism. If private property rights and relative prices based on supply and demand are necessary for successful economic coordination, then conventional market failure theories cannot be sustained. Government interventionism based on the idea of correcting “market failures” is analytically just a milder form of socialist central planning. Between the two, there are only differences in degree, not in kind. We criticize several public choice and law and economics scholars for disregarding this Misesian angle in their market failure theories. In our view they are reducible to arguments based on a fallacious political economy while perpetuating false neoclassical economic analysis of market failure theorists. We claim that government interventionism is just a milder form of socialist central planning. Therefore, the traditional arguments against the efficiency of central planning also apply to government interventions aiming at fixing market failures. In particular, we maintain that governments face the “knowledge problem”, which means that they cannot determine the optimal allocation of resources. In section two of this paper we discuss market failure and economic calculation. Section three is given over to our claim that the “Nirvana fallacy” is itself fallacious. The burden of section four is to address Coase and consequences. We conclude in section five.

• Management agreements for private property rights can be effective for using Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) in downstream flood-prone urban areas. • Inverse leaseholds are revealed as an innovative instrument for non-urban upstream areas rather than TDRs or compulsory acquisition. • TDRs or compulsory acquisition are arguably more suitable for down-stream urban flood-prone areas. Flood-prone areas are more often than not held under private property rights. Hence, the purpose of this research is to highlight how crucial private stakeholders are to the effectiveness of any instrument for flood risk and hence directly impact on the effectiveness of flood management and yet, private property rights are rarely highlighted in such schema. Additionally, the location of flood-prone areas upstream or downstream provides an important impulse for the selection of the appropriate instrument to achieve flood risk management. Land in upstream non-urban areas in Australia and in Europe, is on the whole used for purposes such as agriculture or forestry. The value of these upstream non-urban lands is drawn from their economic utility as agricultural or forestry enterprises, and hence capital worth is associated with the actual use of the land holding. This situation is different from downstream urban lands where generally the land value is closely linked to the capital growth potential of the land in situ. For example, land used for commercial or residential purposes in downstream urban locations albeit flood prone invariably has a potential for uplifting value through intensification in some manner or other of the built form. The principal results of Australian field research by the authors (jointly with others) suggests such management instruments for private property rights can be effective using Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) in downstream flood-prone urban areas and inverse leaseholds in upstream non-urban areas. This paper concludes through a focus primarily on the use of inverse leaseholds which are revealed as an innovative instrument for non-urban upstream flood-prone areas, rather than TDRs or compulsory acquisition which are arguably more suitable in down-stream urban flood-prone areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market value is the most common compensation basis for expropriation of both private and customary property rights. Private property rights are generally exchangeable while customary property rights are conceptually not as exchangeable. It is hence critical to analyse the applicability of current compensation theories, which are founded on private property rights, to different property rights and in different social settings. By using existing literature and empirical evidence from Africa and other countries where customary property rights dominate, this paper undertakes a theoretical analysis of the applicability of existing compensation theories and the methodologies used to achieve the desired compensation goals. The analysis concludes that whilst current compensation theories are broadly applicable to customary property rights as they aim to protect property rights and prevent expropriatees from impoverishment, various ontological and methodological factors limit the realisation of these goals in settings dominated by customary properties. Such factors include ontology and dominance of customary property rights, use of market value as a compensation basis, and capacity of compensation assessors. Broadly, these factors lead to inadequate compensation and impoverishment of affected people.

This paper contributes to the debate on whether private or common property rights are better for advancing the sustainable management of natural resources. This contest between public and private ownership is often exaggerated, we claim, because in the real world, complex entitlements with varying degrees of privateness/publicness prevail. Property rights belonging to families, companies, clubs, corporations, and communities are simultaneously common to the members/shareholders and private to the entities. We call these entitlements private-common entitlements. When we acknowledge this complexity, it becomes evident that neither private nor common ownership rights are alone responsible for resource depletion. Instead, depletion is caused by freeriding or evading the payment of the full price of natural resources. This invites Coase's solution to resource allocation. Therefore, the key problem is whether and how Coasean bargaining is employed to allocate ownership over resources threatened by depletion. We contribute to the debate by showing that Coase's approach promotes not only economically efficient but also ecologically sustainable resource management. Often, this approach would lead to the establishment of largely private property or control rights by largely collective/public entities. We apply this theoretical framework to the development of a ski resort in Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individualistic cultures are associated with economic growth and development. Do they also improve governance of the commons? According to the property rights literature, conservation is more likely when the institutions of property arise from a spontaneous process in response to local problems. We argue that individualistic cultures contribute to conservation by encouraging property rights entrepreneurship: efforts by individuals and communities to resolve commons dilemmas, including their investment of resources in securing political recognition of spontaneously arising property rights. We use the theory to explain cross-country rates of change in forest cover. Using both subjective measures of individualistic values and the historical prevalence of disease as instruments for individualism, we find that individualistic societies have higher reforestation rates than collectivist ones, consistent with our theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal reforms that improve the security of private property rights to land have characteristics of a public good with dispersed benefits. However, nothing ensures that the state will provide property protection as a public good. Some states provide property protection selectively to powerful groups. Others are unable to provide property protection. In this paper, we argue that whether the state provides property protection as a public good, selectively, or cannot establish private property rights depends on the following features of politics: political stability, government capacity to administer and enforce private property rights, constraints on political decision-makers, and the inclusivity of political and legal institutions. We illustrate the theory using evidence from reforms that increased opportunities to privately own land in the US from the late eighteenth through nineteenth centuries, selective enforcement of land property rights in China, and the absence of credible legal rights to land in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Austrian school economics and neo-Marxist theories both have been reviving in recent years. However, the current academic discussion lacks a debate between two schools of economics with diametrically opposed views. This paper is the first and an initial Austrian challenge to Neo-Marxist scholars Nieto and Mateo’s argumentation that cyber-communism and the Austrian theory of dynamic efficiency are consistent to enhance economic development. Their argument focuses on two issues: (a) the existence of circular reasoning in the Austrian theory of dynamic efficiency, and (b) dynamic efficiency and full economic development could be strongly promoted in a socialist system through new information and communication technologies (ICT) and the democratization of all economic life. While cyber-communism refers to cyber-planning without private property rights through ICT, dynamic efficiency refers to the entrepreneurs’ creative and coordinative natures. In this paper, first, we argue that the hypothesis that dynamic efficiency and cyber-communism is not compatible. Contrary to the above cyber-communist criteria, the Austrian theory of dynamic efficiency argues that to impede private property rights is to remove the most powerful entrepreneurial incentive to create and coordinate profit opportunities. Second, we argue that the cyber-communism system is inconsistent with economic development. In this regard, we explain how the institutional environment can cultivate or stifle dynamic efficiency and economic development. Having briefly outlined the central argument of Nieto and Mateo, we examine the institutional arrangement supporting cyber-communism. After that, we evaluate the implications of cyber-communism in the dynamic efficiency process. It becomes manifest that Nieto and Mateo’s accounts are too general to recognize the complexity of how economic development works.

Although the majority of humanity's current space programs are currently limited to the operation of the international space station and the deployment of probes to analyze distant planets, visions for future space exploration have long-duration missions in sight (such as manned missions to Mars and asteroid mining). According to contemporary literature these missions have the potential to provide tangible and intangible benefits, but they are also subject to public criticism given that increased awareness for environmental protection and preservation has ignited debates surrounding the socio-environmental and financial sustainability of space exploration. In hindsight of past advancements in outer space exploration, the authors follow the assumption that the commercial development will flourish and will provide auxiliary opportunities to overcome existing challenges. However, it is clear that the germination of private investment in the field of space exploration is contingent on the existence of unequivocal international space laws that permit and stimulate pro-profit decision making. Following this line of thought, this paper will explore the divergent definitions of sustainability that exist in the rhetoric of space exploration and will additionally expound on the privatization of space exploration and its relevance to the controversial legal rationales of international space laws. • There is a need to integrate concepts of sustainability within space missions. • Private space missions could be facilitated through a new legal framework. • Space treaties should recognize some forms of private extra-terrestrial property. • Space corporations could channel a part of their corporate tax to United Nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian property law has steadily evolved to facilitate the recognition of new or previously unrecognised property rights. Concurrently, modern property rights have become increasingly complex. This evolution of property rights has had fundamental implications when addressing compensation for the impairment or acquisition of land (Indigenous or non-Indigenous) by government. Indeed as understanding of property rights advances, the ambit of compensation is catapulted into uncharted waters. This paper highlights the difficulty of containing property rights to a particular set of descriptors and the effect this has on compensation claims. Further, the current methodology for processing compensation claims exposes a disconnect between the public and the New South Wales (NSW) government. Finally, through an exploration of specific examples of compensation for private property rights, this paper concludes that there is need for a workable consensus on good, bad and fair compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many densely populated cities face the issues of limited usable urban land, and the redevelopment process may threaten the built heritage. Government, in serving the public interest, often intervenes through administrative or regulatory means in the conservation of these privately owned heritage buildings during urban renewal, even though such intervention may violate private property rights to different degrees. Yet, the general law of most developed and developing countries, though in different forms, is meant to protect private property rights. So, it is important to devise a fair and workable mechanism, supported with an innovative institutional arrangement, to control development of privately owned properties. Transfer of development rights (TDR) is one institutional innovation that can balance the conflict between public and private interests to supplement the defect of planning law. Before using TDR to address the property rights issues, there are some concerns that need debating. These include: whether development rights are property rights or not; the impact of conservation on property value; and the role of TDR on property rights, compensation or mitigation of the affected property. This research study begins by analyzing the relationship between property rights and development rights, and exploring how property rights, planning law and TDR interact with each other. It then takes Hong Kong as a typical example among the dense cities to examine the TDR programmes for built heritage conservation and identify the challenges of TDR. Due to the institutional-based characteristics of TDR, the research utilizes a comparison of TDR in Hong Kong with those in other jurisdictions from the perspective of property rights to extend the research result to wider application. The most recent controversial court case in Hong Kong (the ‘Hysan’ case) is discussed to illustrate the intricacy and controversy evolving around this issue. Finally, the research proposes strategies for the improvement in TDR, based on Hong Kong and overseas experiences from the perspective of legislative amendments, protection of property rights and of other stakeholders’ rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impending missions to exploit natural resources of celestial bodies may at some point start interfering with the scientific interests, including those of astrobiology, in these bodies. While the legal status of celestial bodies at the highest level is clear, uncertainty has arisen as to the extent private property rights over such objects or over their resources are legally acceptable, legally impossible, or potentially legal. This also provides for a considerable amount of uncertainty regarding how the legal framework could or may need to be changed to accommodate private interests. The article analyzes the two main international treaties relevant from this perspective, as well as their backgrounds, in order to outline the current legal status of celestial bodies and the resulting legal rights and obligations pertinent to both private exploitation and exploration. Based on such an analysis, it concludes by highlighting an approach that could actually incentivize the private sector and the science community to work together in a manner conducive to their interests in exploitation and exploration respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the U.S., the combination of federal, state, and local forest rules and programs create the policy environment in which private forest landowners manage their land, which in turn impacts the quality and conservation of ecosystem services produced. While previous studies provide overviews of forest policies impacting private landowners at moments in time, they lack the depth and perspective needed to describe the political context of forest policies, including the mechanisms underlying this diversity: the how and why of particular policies. This study fills that gap by utilizing interviews with policy experts from 12 case-study states to investigate the range of forest policies present in the U.S. We also explored the perceived trade-offs between protection of public trust resources and private property rights on private forest lands in their states, and the key actors (groups) influencing policy changes over time. Overall, the strong role of private property rights in the United States was consistent across case-study states, although most experts indicated a balance between protecting public trust resources and private property rights. The variability of policy tools employed among states suggests many avenues to achieve this balance, including policies that are created through market-based mechanisms rather than the state (i.e., certification). We also found that local-level regulations contributed to diversity and, at times, conflict and confusion within states. Finally, although landowner stewardship is not a policy tool, we found that states implicitly and explicitly relied on landowner knowledge and values to protect public trust resources, a strategy that some participants agreed fostered trust between the state and its private forest landowners. • There is wide variation across US states regarding private forest land policies. • Experts said states balanced public trust resources and private landowner rights. • Local rules added further complexity to state diversity. • Third-party certification functioned similar to state-level policies in some places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that protection of the environment requires reconsidering basic liberal ideas relating to value and growth. It selects a central thinker in the liberal tradition, John Locke, as a starting point. The article first shows how Locke’s political writings at first glance might support a “possessive individualist” position that gives primacy to individuals and their rights to property in a way that blocks governmental action to protect the environment, much as some modern versions of liberalism and libertarianism maintain. However, there are other aspects of Locke’s writings that undermine this position. In particular, a reconsideration of his views on private property in combination with his views on the harm principle, the common good, and future generations can support the position that an individual’s right to exploit nature is indeed limited. These elements of Locke are strengthened considerably if Locke’s view of nature is updated by reconsidering nature as composed of ecosystems and as providing ecosystem goods and services. That land should continue to produce abundantly is foundational to Locke, and the failure to protect the ecosystems that provide key services supporting this abundance harms both the property of others and the viability of society: preservation of these constitute a collective good that transcends the individual good. The protection of ecosystem services also works to protect the value of individual holdings as well as the value of land still held in common. Finally, Locke’s writing supports the view that it is the role of government to act to protect the abundance of nature, even against the wishes of an individual property owner. Article first published online: 25 Feb 2017

The only correct libertarian position on immigration is to support open borders. No peaceful immigrant, who confines himself to acting in accord with the libertarian axiom of non-aggression, and adheres to the doctrine of private property rights, should be subjected to violence, without doing violence to this philosophical principle. But would not the target country be inundated by hordes of settlers who would play havoc with the culture and practices of the domestic people? Not if the full libertarian principle of private property rights was rigidly respected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private land conservation and many other contemporary environmental practices and policies are commonly described as ′market-based′ or ′market-driven.′ We argue that this characterisation derives in part from a conflation of private property rights with markets, and that it can obscure the diversity of institutional logics, practices, and political dynamics involved in conservation. We seek to illustrate this diversity through an analysis of private protected areas (PPA) in Chile. Through the experiences of different types of protected areas, as well as the related policy debates, we explore the ideological, political, and institutional conflicts and barriers to private land conservation within a legal and policy framework widely considered to be market friendly. Based on the diverse qualities of property rights observed in conservation projects we suggest the need for a critical environmental research agenda focussed on this neglected form of institutional diversity.

Over the past several decades, more and more social activities happen in places which are privately owned. Scholars have called these properties 'mass private property' (MPP): the private properties that are open to the mass. However, while MPP arouses scholars' attention and interest, there is not a clear understanding of what type of physical space is a 'mass private property'. Rather, the concept of MPP is usually used in an intuitive and taken-for-granted way without examining the ideal essences of diverse MPP spaces. This essay clarifies the criteria by developing the ideal type of MPP. Although MPPs are diverse, to some extent they should share the ideal-typing features of real-estate, legal and sociological dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how middle-class homeowners in urban China have made advancement in collective interest representation and thus protection of private property rights in more systematic ways: not just by contending but by participating in public policy process. This is quite salient in their participation in relevant legislation, from the Property Law in 2007 to the Ordinance on Property Management in Beijing in 2010 and a new version of property management-related local legislation underway. Further investigation of this topic sheds lights on theoretical issues of in what ways and to what extents the state-society interaction in contemporary China is evolving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In reality privatization has never occurred according to the handbook rules of ordinary market transactions. Not even in advanced market economies can privatization transactions be described by the Walrasian or Arrowian, or Leontiefian equilibrium models, or by the equilibrium models of the game theory. In these economies transactions of privatization take place in a fairly organic way – which means that those are driven by the dominance of private property rights and in a market economy. But despite this fact Western privatization also some peculiar features as compared to ordinary company takeovers, since the state as the seller may pursue non – economic goals. Changes in the dominant form of property change positions and status of many individuals and groups in the society. That’s why privatization can even less be explained by ordinary market mechanisms in transition countries where privatizing state-owned property have happened in a mass scale and where markets and private property rights weren't established at the time process of privatization began. In this paper I’ll discuss and analyze the phenomenon of privatization in context of different economic theories arguing that empirical results go in favor of the public choice theory (Buchanan, 1978), theory of "economic constitution" (Brennan and Buchanan 1985), (Buchanan and Tullock, 1989), and theory of "collective action" (Olson, 1982). These theories argues that transition from one economic system into another, for example transition from collectivistic, socialistic system into capitalism and free market economy with dominant private property, will not happen through isolated changes of only few economic institutions, no matter how deep that changes would be. In other words privatization can not give results if it's not followed by comprehensive change of economic system because privatized companied wouldn't be able to operate in old environment.

At bottom, for the libertarian, the issue of justice in the Middle East regarding the Jews and the Arabs, Israel and Palestinians, comes down to private property rights. Murray Rothbard's War Guilt in the Middle East takes the position that the Arabs were and are the proper owners of the terrain under dispute. We offer the very opposite point of view, but based on the very same libertarian principles employed by Rothbard. Our main criticism is that this author does not go far back enough in history in his analysis nor does he correctly analyze the historical record in the period before and after the creation of the State of Israel. Thus, we provide a case for the existence of Israel as a state from a libertarian legal perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right to private property is guaranteed by international acts and domestic laws from the arbitrary intervention of state bodies. Private property may be assumed only in the public interest and under the conditions specified by law. In Kosovo, this right is guaranteed by the Constitution and special laws in the field of ownership. This article analyses the legal foundation in Kosovo from the angle of practice within the European Court of Human Rights. Our analysis is focused specifically on scrutinising the 2009 Law on the Expropriation of Immovable Property, as amended in 2010. The article concludes that this law provides a legal foundation which satisfactorily guarantees the right to property. Nevertheless, the Law requires significant experience in its implementation due to the numerous deadlines and procedures which need to be interpreted in logical connection with the Law's different strands. The article concludes with recommendations aimed at highlighting the measures of caution of which the law enforcement authorities need to be aware when implementing the Law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research suggests that private property rights are an important determinant of economic development. This paper assesses five commonly used measures of property rights and their relative ability to predict economic development. The International Country Risk Guide risk of expropriation and World Governance Indicators rule of law measures, as well as property rights indices from the Fraser Institute and Heritage Foundation, are all positively and robustly associated with GDP per capita. Polity IV's executive constraints measure has a statistically and economically weaker impact. This paper also addresses the methodological strengths and weaknesses of each measure to guide researchers in selecting an appropriate measure for empirical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On May 21, 2015, the US House of Representatives passed a revised version of the ASTEROIDS Act, now labeled the Space Resource Exploration ad Utilization Act. If endorsed also by the US Senate the Act may be formally enacted into law by the President of the United States. In the light of this important development it seems appropriate to analyze the content and the legal and political implications of the Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a number of recent articles, the debate on the ethics of fractional reserve 'free' banking has been extended to loan maturity mismatching, specifically the banking practice of borrowing short and lending long. Barnett and Block (J Bus Ethics 88(4):711-716, ; ) claim the practice is illicit, because like fractional reserve banking it creates duplicate property titles. They argue there is a continuum in the time dimension between the two kinds of activities. Bagus and Howden (J Bus Ethics 90(3):399-406, ; 106(3):295-300, ; Eur J Law Econ, ; Bus Ethics 22(3):235-245, ) maintain that loan maturity mismatching does not create duplicate titles and is not illicit, and that from an economic and legal perspective there is no continuum with fractional reserve banking. Cachanosky (J Bus Ethics 104:219-221, ) and Evans (J Bus Ethics, ) enter the debate from the free-banking standpoint and view both practices as legitimate. In this paper, I agree with the conclusions of Bagus and Howden, but adopt a different approach to support this position. Using the title-transfer theory of contract, I demonstrate from first principles why loan maturity mismatching does not create duplicate property titles and is a legitimate practice. Employing this same theory, I then present a novel argument to show why the contractual arrangements found in fractional reserve banking are logically contradictory and illegitimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on civil asset forfeiture in Ontario and British Columbia. It mentions the optimal allocation of resources for the utilization of the penalty which is influenced by incentives. An overview of its comparative analysis, social welfare and private property rights as well as the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 is also presented.

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the viability of free market environmentalism. This is the philosophy that has as its basic premise the view that laissez faire capitalism and concomitant private property rights, far from being an impediment to the well-functioning of the environment, are actually the last best hope for this desiderata. Design/methodology/approach -- The prairie dog and the ferret are not the species usually associated with concern over endangerment. Typically, it is the whale, the elephant and the rhino that are subjected to such an analysis. The authors approach this issue through the "eyeglasses" of the economist who sees value in our free enterprise institutions. Findings -- The authors found that the tragedy of the commons works in this case as it does in all other relevant venues: if land is not privately held, but rather open to all, a tragedy occurs: there is economics misallocation and a too swift use of resources compared to the optimal situation. Originality/value -- The authors know of no other examination of the prairie dog and the ferret in the Conata Basin. This is an important case in point in amassing evidence of the workings of the private property system vis-à-vis the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines land governance transitions during the transformation from a monarchy to a western/US private property governance system in the Hawaiian Islands, covering the historical structures through the 1830s, the implementation of the Māhele (division) during the 1840s–1850s, and the immediate consequences. Though the Hawaiian monarchy initiated land reforms in part to protect indigenous Hawaiian commoners from eviction, the institutions and practices created through land reform effectively disadvantaged indigenous Hawaiian commoners from claiming property, and later, even the Hawaiian monarchy lost direct control over lands that the King had set aside. Implications of this analysis for future research and political debate are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On June 10, 2014, a bill proposing to establish and protect (private) property rights on asteroid resources was introduced in the US House of Representatives. Regardless of its effective chances to become law, the presentation of the Bill raises numerous legal questions, particularly concerning the status of extraterrestrial natural resources and the consistency of what the Bill suggests with international space law. The purpose of the present viewpoint is to address and clarify the above questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private land conservation and many other contemporary environmental practices and policies are commonly described as 'market-based' or 'market-driven.' We argue that this characterisation derives in part from a conflation of private property rights with markets, and that it can obscure the diversity of institutional logics, practices, and political dynamics involved in conservation. We seek to illustrate this diversity through an analysis of private protected areas (PPA) in Chile. Through the experiences of different types of protected areas, as well as the related policy debates, we explore the ideological, political, and institutional conflicts and barriers to private land conservation within a legal and policy framework widely considered to be market friendly. Based on the diverse qualities of property rights observed in conservation projects we suggest the need for a critical environmental research agenda focussed on this neglected form of institutional diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]