University of Virginia Legal Working Paper Series
University of Virginia John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics Working Paper Series
The Property Rights of Despots
Abstract
This paper is an essay on two models of property rights which I label Blackstone One (the canonical model of land property) and Blackstone Two (based on Blackstone’s description of water rights). These two models reflect the antinomy between absolute ("despotic") rights of exclusion on the one hand versus a more accommodative model on the other. The essay explores three doctrinal areas of property – nuisance, easements and trespass – in an attempt to show that the Blackstone Two model has more application (and normative appeal) than conventional land property scholars have recognized. The essay also explores the contrast between economic models of property and those that might be called "social norms" models. I consider whether and to what extent social norms have a role to play in the definition and enforcement of property rights, taking as a jumping off point the current academic discussion of social norms generally and the historic treatment of group norms in the creation of western water law and mining law.
Subject Area
Property-Personal and Real, Public Law and Legal Theory
Recommended Citation
Glen O. Robinson,
"The Property Rights of Despots"
(June 2007).
University of Virginia Legal Working Paper Series.
University of Virginia John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics Working Paper Series.
Working Paper 39.
http://law.bepress.com/uvalwps/olin/art39
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