Given-ness and gift: Property and the quest for environmental ethics Author Rose C.M. Journal/Series Environmental Law | Vol. 24(1); 1 - 31; 31 p. Date 1994 Source IUCN (ID: ANA-051176) Publisher | Place of publication Northwestern School of Law Lewis and Clark College | Portland, OR, USA Language English Field of application International Subject Environment gen. Keyword Indigenous peoples Ethics and environment Property rights Common property Abstract Economists and some lawyers argue that environmental degradation results from an absence of property rights, a condition that opens the environment to ill-treatment as a 'commons', in which any environmental resource is treated as 'just a given'. But as Professor Rose points out, conventional forms of property rights can also damage environmental resources, while bureaucratic forms of management can be complex, expensive, and coercive. In this article, Rose suggests that environmental ethics may yield an alternative or supplemental approach to managing environmental resources, in which the environment is seen not as a 'given' but as a 'gift'. With common problems in mind, she examines three possible sources for genuinely conservationist environmental ethics: indigenous people's practices biologic rights, and older forms of common property