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Negotiating the Quality of Property Rights: Heuristic Strategies for Better Environmental Outcomes in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2025

Naimitya Sharma Open the ORCID record for Naimitya Sharma [Opens in a new window]
Naimitya Sharma*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor (Economics), School of Commerce, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Chandigarh, India
*
Email: naimitya@gmail.com
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Abstract

There are several examples of collective action/social movements for the environmental cause in India. The literature on environmental governance and environmental economics, identifies a significant role of the nature of environmental goods with respect to the twin classifying criteria of rivalry in consumption and excludability. The common pool resource and public good nature of environmental property require varied governance approaches. These economic theory-based classifications can be associated with diverse types of property rights regimes in the legal realm. By developing an analytic narrative, this article attempts to identify how common individuals related with environmental movements, identify some of these nuances with respect to nature of environmental goods and associated property rights regimes and develop strategies for improvements. This article utilises secondary qualitative data to examine the perspective of common individuals, groups, and leaders of environmental movements to infer theoretical learnings from a few cases in India.

Keywords

property rightsenvironmental governancecommon pool resourcesbargainqualitative changevolunteeringIndia

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 12 , Special Issue 3: Property Rights in India: Theory and Practice , September 2025 , pp. 415 - 433
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Asian Journal of Law and Society

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