Governance & Ownership models

Water (riparian) rights in land recognise the different approach needed to govern common flows over land, such as for streams that run across property boundaries. For example, a landowner downstream, or adjacent, is entitled to receive the natural flow of the river, undiminished in quantity and quality – this places obligations on owners upstream... See more

Material and mineral rights generally come with land ownership. Some mineral rights are exempt from private ownership being reserved to the Crown (see the inter regalia), common or state interest (e.g. oil, coal, gold, silver). Rights over these materials are reallocated based on separate ownership title, or licences.

Crofting is a unique form of small-scale land-holding which provides the crofter with regulated rights, such as regulated fair rents, tenure security and inheritability. This is balanced with certain responsibilities for the crofter, defined by crofting legislation, to not “neglect” or “misuse” the land, but to use it for “productive” (agriculture... See more

Development Management Scheme (DMS). This is commonly used for new housing developments in Scotland, and is a commons-like governance structure which allows owners to participate in collective decision-making, management and maintenance of common property, and where membership of the scheme is registered in the property title.

from ‘the Danish model’ – large corporations majority-owned by foundations, yet with a stock-market listing, like Novo Nordisk – to foundation/trust-owned enterprises such as Bosch (Germany), John Lewis Partnership (UK) or Patagonia (USA), to startups that implement the principles using veto share models.

according to commons scholar and activist Silke Helfrich, offer ways to both perceive and interact with Commons, which can be seen as:

Collectively managed resources , both material and immaterial, which need protection and require a lot of knowledge and know-how.

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