2025/09/02 by Yan Hua Hong, Jun Li, Jing xin He +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Property Rights and Legal Doctrine #Land Rights and Reforms #Urban Planning and Governance
paper · doi:10.1080/10370196.2026.2632985
openalex publication_date 2025/09/02 · openalex created_date 2026/04/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
The persistence and dissolution of the British open-field community exemplifies a classic case of dynamic property rights transformation under specific historical conditions. Drawing on Barzel’s Economic Analysis of Property Rights, this study interprets the open-field village as a property rights community centred on fragmented and incomplete common right. Within specific technological and market constraints, cooperative allocation mechanisms enabled relatively low transaction costs, producing an ‘efficient under constraints’ arrangement. As markets expanded, new land attributes acquired value, and measurement techniques improved, the costs of maintaining the traditional structure increased, undermining its efficiency. The parliamentary enclosure became a profound process of property rights restructuring, in which state authority separated land attributes from the commons and redefined exclusive private ownership according to market principles. Enclosure represented not only a change in production but also a fundamental reallocation of rights. This historical case illuminates the complex balance between efficiency and equity in institutional change.