Property law at the margins: constitution, capacity and relational aspects

Gray, Janice (2016) Property law at the margins: constitution, capacity and relational aspects. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

Preview

PDF Download (691kB) | Preview

Abstract

New technologies, a shift towards markets and trading as favoured tools of neoliberal
governance, and the re-casting of inter-cultural relationships have
contributed to an increase in the sites where the proprietary paradigm is
potentially applicable. As new legal issues and contexts arise, property is often
presented as the ‘solution’ that will instil order, resolve disputes, solve social
and legal problems and support governance. But will it? Indeed, can it? This
thesis considers property’s constitution, capacity and its relationships with other
non-legal fields, disciplines and sectors in order to analyse property’s
effectiveness.

It focuses on four emerging sites—native title, water/sewage, unconventional
gas and cyberspace— to analyse property’s applicability and potential because
it is at marginal sites that the limits of property are often tested. It begins by
critiquing the bundle of sticks concept of property to highlight property’s
complexity and warn against its reification. It then locates property in the range
of diverse appended publications before analysing them.

Five key property-related themes emerge from the publications at the four
marginal sites. Discussion of them provides insights into property’s
effectiveness as a tool of social organisation, management and democracy. It
reveals that propertization is unlikely to capture the plethora of non-legal
understandings which exist about property. It also observes that because
property rights are often in competition with each other propertization may not
yield all anticipated benefits. Further, if trade can be de-coupled from property
(in the regulatory space) property’s importance will diminish. Meanwhile the
tension between flexibility and fixity, and the role of resistance and context in
the property space reveal further limits on property’s effectiveness.

Discussion of the five themes demonstrates and supports the key argument that
property’s effectiveness is contingent on purpose and purposes may be diverse
and sometimes contradictory. Property is not necessarily a panacea.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Publication
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law
Depositing User:	Zoe White
Date Deposited:	09 Jul 2025 13:55
Last Modified:	09 Jul 2025 13:55
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99873
DOI:

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item