Overview
Essential resources do more than satisfy people's needs. They ensure a dignified existence. Since the competition for essential resources, particularly fresh water and arable land, is increasing and standard legal institutions, such as property rights and national border controls, are strangling access to resources for some while delivering prosperity to others, many are searching for ways to ensure their fair distribution. This book argues that the division of essential resources ought to be governed by a combination of Voice and Reflexivity. Voice is the ability of social groups to choose the rules by which they are governed. Reflexivity is the opportunity to question one's own preferences in light of competing claims and to accommodate them in a collective learning process. Having investigated the allocation of essential resources in places as varied as Cambodia, China, India, Kenya, Laos, Morocco, Nepal, the arid American West, and peri-urban areas in West Africa, the contributors to this volume largely concur with the viability of this policy and normative framework. Drawing on their expertise in law, environmental studies, anthropology, history, political science, and economics, they weigh the potential of Voice and Reflexivity against such alternatives as pricing mechanisms, property rights, common resource management, political might, or brute force.
Full Product Details
Author: Katharina Pistor (Columbia Law School) ,
Olivier De Schutter (Université catholique de Louvain)
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 3.00cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.666kg
ISBN: 9780231172783
ISBN 10: 0231172788
Pages: 392
Publication Date: 08 December 2015
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
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Language: English
Reviews
Since the market routinely fails to secure access to the resources essential for survival, what are the alternatives? The editors of this volume propose a strong normative framework to resolve the tragedy of exclusion. The contributors, writing from different theoretical perspectives and with diverse empirical material in mind, highlight the challenges. The result is a real exchange that pushes forward a crucial debate. -- Tania Murray Li, University of Toronto
Author Information
Katharina Pistor teaches at Columbia Law School and directs its Center on Global Legal Transformation. She is widely recognized for her scholarship on privatization, property rights, comparative corporate law and governance, and law and finance. In 2012, she was a co-awardee of the Max Planck Research Award for her work on international financial regulation. Olivier De Schutter teaches international law at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) and Sciences Po (Paris). A specialist in economic and social rights, he is a former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food and currently serves as a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. He has held visiting professorships at Columbia University, New York University, and the University of California, Berkeley.
