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The Transformation of Canadian Property Rights?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2014

Richard A. Brisbin Jr.  and
Susan Hunter
Richard A. Brisbin Jr.
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6137USA, [email protected]
Susan Hunter
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6317USA, [email protected]
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Abstract

Legal scholars tend to situate the development of rights in constitutional courts. However, recent studies in the law and society tradition find that individual choices or choices by private organizations also can transform the meaning of rights. Further extending this argument, this paper hypothesizes that the transformation of rights also occurs through incremental policy changes made by subnational officeholders and administrators, including changes that “layer” new meanings onto law and rights. To examine the hypothesis, this paper uses the example of property rights and land use regulation. It concludes that Canadian officeholders and administrators engage in an ongoing development of the meaning of rights within a rationality defined by entrenched constitutive values about territoriality.

Résumé

Les juristes tendent à situer le développement des droits dans les cours constitutionnelles. Cependant, des recherches récentes dans la tradition Droit et Société montrent que les choix individuels ou ceux d'organismes privés peuvent également transformer la signification des droits. En allant plus loin, cet article pose que la transformation de droits se produit également à travers de petites modifications de politiques que les élus et les fonctionnaires régionaux font, incluant ceux qui ajoutent de nouvelles significations aux dispositions et aux droits. Cet article s'appuie sur l'exemple des règlements concernant les droits de propriété et l'utilisation du territoire pour tester cette hypothèse. Il conclut que les élus et les fonctionnaires canadiens attribuent constamment des significations aux droits, dont la rationalité se définie à partir de valeurs constitutives de la territorialité.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 21 , Issue 1: Exceptions, Excuses, Norm(e)s , April 2006 , pp. 135 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 2006

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