ABSTRACT: Property Rights in the Age of Global Warming: A Reexamination

Andrew Updegrove, Partner, Gesmer Updegrove LLP

3/27/2008
(Original Publish Date: 5/1/2007)

The lesson of the "tragedy of the commons" is that property that is communally owned is doomed to over-exploitation. This often observed phenomenon is reinforced by current property laws and concepts. The challenges presented by global warming, the overexploitation of natural resources, and other environmental abuses that can only be solved through international cooperation underlines the urgent need to find new means to avert not only these but future common tragedies as well. In this article, I suggest ways to reorder our concepts regarding property that may, if embraced, make it more feasible for nations to realize more effective solutions to these seemingly intractable issues.