"PROPERTY" RIGHTS AND THE WAYS OF PROTECTING ENTITLEMENTS - AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Abstract This paper discusses the concept of "property" rights in an interdisciplinary perspective (Law and Economics) in order to compose an analytical conceptual framework to issues related to appropriability involved in public goods (PG) and common pool resources (CPR) analysis. Firstly, we discuss the differences between legal and economic concepts of property rights, trying to integrate economic and legal analytical elements: a right is an opportunity for current or future uses of an asset that is guaranteed by legal system (an enforceable power to maintain the control over economic opportunities). Although economists may not be concerned if some opportunity is guaranteed (or not) by law, nor whether its entitlement is made by means of property or by some other kind of right, these differences also matter for economic analysis. To deal with this question, we need to open the "black box" of the so called "property" rights: a) identifying and analyzing the different ways in which rights are entitled - from a legal perspective (Hohfeld) and in the footsteps of studies analyzing the economic relevance of the differences between property and possession, or property, liability and inalienability (Calabresi and Melamed); b) breaking down the concept of property rights in many faculties and analyzing them as a bundle of rights (Schlager and Ostrom). By way of conclusion, we discuss the possibilities of integrating these approaches and explore some of the implications of the study. From a public policies perspective, a more detailed understanding may assist in policy formulation (e.g., to break down and assign specific rights to different holders, etc.), and designing new forms of entitlements, or even the creation of new "assets" that could become the subject of rights.

摘要 本文以法学与经济学的跨学科视角探讨产权概念，旨在为公共物品（public goods，PG）与公共池塘资源（common pool resources，CPR）分析中涉及的可占用性（appropriability）相关议题构建分析性概念框架。首先，本文探讨了产权在法学与经济学维度下的概念差异，尝试整合经济学与法学的分析要素：产权是指由法律体系保障的、对某项资产进行当前或未来使用的机会，即维持对经济机会的控制的可执行权力。尽管经济学家可能不会关注某项经济机会是否获得法律保障，也不会关注其权利赋予是通过产权还是其他类型的权利实现，但这些差异对于经济分析同样具有重要意义。为解决这一问题，我们需要揭开所谓“产权”的黑箱：其一，从法学视角出发，借鉴霍菲尔德（Hohfeld）的理论，识别并分析权利赋予的不同路径；同时沿袭相关研究思路，剖析产权与占有、产权、责任与不可转让性之间差异的经济相关性（卡拉布雷西与梅拉米德，Calabresi and Melamed）；其二，将产权概念拆解为多项权能，并将其作为一组权利束（bundle of rights）进行分析（施拉格与奥斯特罗姆，Schlager and Ostrom）。最后，本文探讨了整合上述研究路径的可能性，并剖析了本研究的若干启示。从公共政策视角来看，对产权的更细致理解可为政策制定提供助力，例如拆解并将特定权利分配给不同权利主体等，同时可用于设计新型权利赋予形式，乃至创设可成为权利客体的新型“资产”。