Statutory Rights to Oil and Gas, Water, Fisheries: Are They Private Property?
Publicly-owned natural resources such as minerals are generally allocated under statutory licences or permits. Sometimes the statute declares whether the rights allocated are a form of property, but often it does not, and over the years the courts have had to decide. Newer legislation poses the same questions, such fisheries and water laws, and laws for tradeable allowances to emit carbon dioxide or other pollutants. There is no generally-accepted body of law for ascertaining whether the attributes of property ownership attach to such statutory permits. In law and in public debate the labelling of a right as a property right gives it significant additional force. Barton’s research inquires into the approach that the courts take to the relationship between property and legislation in this respect in different common law countries. Barry Barton is a world-leading authority on energy, natural resources and environmental law. He graduated from the University of Auckland with a BA in Geogra
