Commons in the first Latin American Civil Codes

Abstract

This paper analyzes the regulation of the commons in Latin America through five codification experiences (Louisiana, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil). In each of these cases, we analyze the way in which commons were confined in methodological sections reserved for things. This confinement is due to the use of a liberal technique of subjective rights allocation over different objects with economic value. Likewise, we recover some commonality footprints that regional lawmakers left in preparatory works, comments and legal texts. It is suggested that the challenge of de-confinement of commons requires the generation of capacities to manage both its de-commodification and its denaturalization.