Mixing Property

Abstract

Mixed property regimes are on the rise in the United States and in many other countries throughout the world. Yet this fast-growing phenomenon currently lacks a broad-scale scholarly analysis aimed at extracting the shared theoretical principles of these intriguing property configurations. This Article offers an innovative analysis of the various types of mixed property regimes located along the sides of the private-common-public property triangle and within it. The Article re-conceptualizes the property formations of Public-Private Partnerships and Common Interest Communities, and identifies and analyzes phenomena such as the Israeli Renewing Kibbutz, various forms of public-common property mixtures (e.g., the management and maintenance of city-owned parks in New York City), and tri-layered regimes such as Community Land Trusts. In so doing, this Article offers a first of its kind, comprehensive taxonomy of mixed property regimes.

Although these different property patterns vary greatly in the way they create, allocate, and enforce entitlements and responsibilities among the relevant parties, this Article identifies a consolidated theoretical basis for mixed property regimes, pointing as well to the normative advantages that these hybrid forms may have over purer property regimes, thus significantly enriching the property landscape.

Keywords: property, commons, public-private partnership, common interest community, kibbutz, new york city, park, business improvement district, public space, property theory, privatization, publicization, externality, egalitarianism, democracy, community land trust, anticommons, outsourcing, PFI

JEL Classification: D6, D7, E6, H1, H2, H4, H5, K11, L3, O1, O2, P1