Handbook of Key Global Financial Markets, Institutions, and Infrastructure

Chapter 49

Property Rights in an Era of Global Finance

A. Lehavi

Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel

Outline

Introduction

The Nature of Property Rights

The Local Origins of Property

Supranational Property Instruments: A General Survey

The Challenge of Globalization: Resource-Specific Comments

Land

Chattels

Intangibles

Intellectual Property

Conclusion

References

Introduction

From time immemorial, property rights have been a source of enormous legal, economic, and political interest. In Commentaries on the Laws of England, Blackstone (1765) famously stated that “there is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination, and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property.” Indeed, the nature and scope of property rights ...