Dissertation Abstract:

The globe initially belonged to no particular human being. Political theorists have deduced disparate property rights theories from this fundamental premise. The relation between original ownership of the globe, the attendant property rights theories and the (in)validity of the right of relocation has not received adequate attention and systematic theoretical treatment in the existing literature. To address the notable gap in the existing literature, my dissertation goes to the very roots and starts with the fundamental concept of the original ownership of the globe. How should property rights with respect to one and the same commodity be distributed over the concentric circles of the entire humanity, citizens of any particular state, and definite individuals? In delving into these issues, my dissertation subscribes to a certain conception of property rights, and, with a bottom-up construction of a theoretical edifice, proposes a sustainable variant of the right of relocation congruent with that conception, addressing the issues of political membership as well as property rights over resources.