All solutions to environmental problems depend on the imposition of private, common, or public-property rights in natural resources. Who should own the resources: private individuals, private groups of "stakeholders", or the entire society (the public)? Contrary to much of the literature in this field, this book argues that no single property regime works best in all circumstances. Environmental protection requires the use of multiple property regimes--including admixtures of private, common, and public-property systems.

1. Pollution and property: the conceptual framework
2. Public property/regulatory solutions to the tragedy of open access
3. Mixed property/regulatory regimes for environmental protection
4. Institutional and technological limits of mixed property/regulatory regimes
5. The theory and limits of free market environmentalism (a private property/nonregulatory regime)
6. The limited utility of common property regimes for environmental protection
7. The complexities of property regime choice for environmental protection
8. When property regimes collide: the 'takings' problem
9. Final thoughts.