The Right of Nonuse

"The Right of Nonuse is a tour de force. Jan Laitos debunks the enduring myth that private property rights and the market will best serve humanity's interest. Drawing on law, economics, ecology, history, and ethics, he makes a compelling case that the dominant instrumentalist view will inevitably fail to achieve its stated goals and that a truly sustainable and efficient path demands that we focus on the values we derive from nonuse of resources, and that we endow the resources themselves with rights to protect these values. With this book, Laitos moves the concept of nonuse from bit player in crowd scenes to contender for a leading role in shaping conservation law and policy." --Alyson Flournoy Alumni Research Scholar & UF Research Foundation Professor University of Florida, Levin College of Law "Drawing from a multitude of disciplines, Jan Laitos elegantly synthesizes a wide spectrum of research and scholarship into a coherent and compelling legal theory of the Right of Nonuse. His sweeping history of resource use and nonuse in law and society spans the Age of Human Survival, through periods of market dominance and rising property rights, to his vision of an Age of Eco-centrism. Using the theory of nonuse as a legal right vested in nature, Laitos challenges even emerging theories of ecological management policy. Anyone interested in a refreshingly reasoned and practically minded new perspective on the law and policy of nature will find it here." --J.B. Ruhl David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law Vanderbilt University Law School