David M. Berry
Beyond Public and Private: Reconceptualising Collective Ownership
Abstract
This paper introduces a conceptual topology to aid in critiquing and understanding the articulation of concepts and arguments related to the commons. This topology is inspired by the Roman Law classifications of property, but is not reducible to them; rather it is intended to complexify our often staid binary of public/private property. Throughout, these concepts are intended to broaden and deepen the way in which we think of existing property classifications, and, through alternative readings, offer suggestions for how we might understand property relations in new ways. Within this framework the following concepts are described in detail: Res Nullis, Res Privatae, Res Publicae, Res Universitatis, Res Communes, Res Divini Jurisand Fructus. It will also introduce a neologism, namely Res Imperium.
David M. Berry: Media and Film Department / University of Sussex