Rights for Sale

Minnesota Law Review, Vol. 96, p. 90, 2011

Bar Ilan Univ. Pub Law Working Paper No. 15-09

51 Pages Posted: 4 Oct 2009 Last revised: 30 Oct 2013

See all articles by Tsilly Dagan

Tsilly Dagan

University of Oxford, Faculty of Law; Bar Ilan University

Talia Fisher

Tel Aviv University - Buchmann Faculty of Law; Harvard Law School; Harvard University - Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics

Abstract

Individuals enjoy a host of rights in relation to the government, including voting rights, the right against self-incrimination, the right to public education, pollution quotas, as well as various subsidies and tax attributes. Should individuals be able to sell these public entitlements to others? Markets for voting rights or tax attributes may seem inconceivable. Yet for pollution quotas, trade between polluters who do not fully utilize their quotas and those who wish to utilize the surplus seems natural, and is actually encouraged. Can the differences in treatment be normatively justified?

This Article challenges existing conventions regarding the inalienability of public entitlements. Public entitlements are usually considered from the vertical perspective of individual vis-à-vis government. We move the spotlight to the neglected horizontal (individual-individual) perspective, focusing on the question of their alienability. By showing that there is nothing inherently inalienable about public entitlements, we offer new insights with regard to both alienability and public entitlements: Expanding the horizons of the alienability discourse beyond the traditional contexts of taboo markets (such as organs, babies, and sexuality) to the unexplored terrain of public entitlements dismantles the simplistic binary treatment of alienability, opening up nuanced variations; Viewing public entitlements through the prism of alienability reveals an overlooked potential for their use as public policy instruments.

Keywords: Alienability, Markets, Tax, Charitable Contributions

Suggested Citation

Dagan, Tsilly and Fisher, Talia, Rights for Sale. Minnesota Law Review, Vol. 96, p. 90, 2011, Bar Ilan Univ. Pub Law Working Paper No. 15-09 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1980941

Tsilly Dagan (Contact Author)

University of Oxford, Faculty of Law ( email )

St Cross Building
St Cross Rd
Oxford, OX1 3UL
United Kingdom

Bar Ilan University ( email )

Ramat Gan
Ramat Gan, 52900
Israel

Talia Fisher

Tel Aviv University - Buchmann Faculty of Law ( email )

Ramat Aviv
Tel Aviv, 69978
Israel

Harvard Law School ( email )

1575 Massachusetts
Hauser 406
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Harvard University - Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics ( email )

124 Mount Auburn Street
Suite 520N
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
169
Abstract Views
1,898
Rank
319,049
PlumX Metrics