Promoting Legal Recognition of Community-Based Property Rights, Including the Commons: Some Theoretical Considerations, was presented at a Symposium of the International Association for the Study of Common Property and the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, June 7, 1999.
The paper reviews threats to community-based property rights, including the commons, particularly for local
people in the majority world.. The primary problem arises out of the fact that many, if not most, nation-states in the majority world ignore community-based property rights and instead claim ownership of vast areas of natural resources, including
areas inhabited by indigenous and other local peoples.