Towards a Legal Theory of the Commons and the Common Good

* Article (in Italian): Beni comuni. Contributo per una teoria giuridica. di Alberto Lucarelli. Ordinario di Diritto costituzionale - Università di Napoli "Federico II

URL = http://www.costituzionalismo.it/articoli/492/

Abstract

"Against the backdrop of the on-going and significant processes of privatization of public goods, which have weakened the notion of state property, this essay aims to contribute to the scholarly debate around the legal notion of material common goods. The essay explores the nature and function of state property, as well as its ability to affect the diverse dimensions of democracy and form of State. The physiological limits of the model state property (and its fatal, but perhaps natural, attraction to the dominus model of public property) will be highlighted. In this respect, I will argue that the legal notion of material common goods is far from being similar to the legal notion of public property, in that it is based on the relationship between goods and fundamental rights (endorsing the social function of public goods), rather than on the relationship between goods and their dominus."