Abstract:

The grammar of the commons has exploded in recent years, inspiring claims on fundamental rights and the defence of natural resources. This has amplified theoretical interest in both the category and confusion around its borders. I will reflect on the scales of collective governance and participatory structures as keys to ordering different types of commons (emerging and necessary ones) to keep this drive and influence public policy successfully.

This means dealing with an interpretation of the governance of the commons on two levels. The first concerns the design principles of their structures, and thus the dilemmas of cooperation/appropriation of an interdependent resource. The second level concerns the interaction between the difficult balance of the first level and the ‘outside world’ in which each commons exists. I am referring to the rules of the State and the market, to which commons are beyond, but not impermeable. Moreover, the neo-liberalisation of the State and the global economy connects these two poles that were previously interpreted as more different.

I will reflect on the role of the legal as a medium to act on this complex interconnection. From our perspective, this means to explore and to connect internationally collective governance institutions or informal legal practices (sometimes new others ancient) developed by commoners in different parts of the world. I will discuss the methodology of political-legal hacking. This is challenging in two ways. Firstly, to have these rules recognised within the legal framework of the different nations; secondly, to use these commons-based rules to influence and change the rules of the State and the market more extensively.