Those interested in legal issues pertaining to the commons will be glad to learn that commons scholar David Bollier has contributed a chapter to a new law textbook, International Environmental Law and World Order: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook. Bollier describes the chapter, and adds some thoughts about moving the study of the commons into law schools, in a post on his blog:

The first section of the chapter looks at the conceptual and historical background of the commons, as seen through readings by Garret Hardin and commons scholars such as Elinor Ostrom and Lewis Hyde.

The next section introduces new notions of stewardship over the long term, often in contrast to regimes of private property rights and exclusive individual ownership for market gain. This accounts for the many deep tensions between private property law and the commons.

A third section surveys a number of contemporary ecological commons and proposals for new commons such as acequias (community-operated waterways) that enable Native Americans to steward scarce water supplies in New[...]

[Published in NonProfitBlogs - Read the original article]