Responsibility as an Imperative for Addressing Property Rights Conflict

Abstract

"In Australia, the institution of property rights in land and natural resources is currently under revision. The need for reform arises from the recognition that traditional property rights arrangements, which are focussed on agriculture and pastoralism as the dominant land uses, are now proving inadequate to accommodate new social values in the environment and emerging interests in the health and natural resources of Australias rural landscapes. Traditional views of private ownership of land and exclusive use of its resources are being challenged by emerging views of ecosystems, landscapes, and the environment generally as common resources. The difficulty arises in attempts to satisfy a strong and largely urban social demand for collective environmental benefits within an inherited framework of private land ownership and the expectations of the property rights associated with that ownership.

"Less understood and less articulated are the responsibilities that accompany rights of ownership, for the land itself and to other present and future users. This paper advances the idea that rights have counterpart responsibilities and that discussion about rights necessitates discussion of responsibilities. That idea becomes the basis of an argument for a more duty, or obligation orientated conception of property and land ownership. This in turn has significant implications for policy designed to protect natural resources on private land."