Abstract

Since few years, most of the common ownership tends to disappear. The social and economical context was confident in the economic argument underlining the inefficiency of common property. The economic argument had a major influence in the disqualification of the latter, especially because it put in light the so-called “tragedy of the commons”. In this paper, we will present a systematic description of the economic arguments against common ownership. Then we will highlight their rhetorical bias, especially the limits of the concept of common property used by neoinstitutional economics. Finally, we will suggest other ways to analyze the raise of rights to private ownership and another interpretation of the common able to sustain new approaches of property.