[Download] "Property and Environment: Thoughts on an Evolving Relationship." by Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Property and Environment: Thoughts on an Evolving Relationship.
- Author : Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
- Release Date : January 22, 2005
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 261 KB
Description
Private property is a necessary but insufficient tool for environmental regulation. Why is it necessary? There are several reasons. First, it settles who controls a resource, making rational management possible. While this may sound trivial, countries with weak or fragmented systems of ownership--or where enforcement of law is tainted by corruption--find it impossible even to begin to preserve resources or prevent pollution. (1) This is especially the case when different individuals make conflicting claims to the same plot of land. Second, private property owners have the incentive to preserve the capital value of their land. They can reap where they (or nature) have sown. They postpone harvesting their property (by cutting a forest, for example) until a propitious time. This choice is a cousin to environmental protection. Private ownership involves control of appetite and rational planning. It similarly solves the problem of open access to a resource, which leads to destruction, because all may have an incentive to reap but none have any incentive to sow--or even to defer use. (2)