财产权之交易观

A Transactional View of Property Rights

财产权与合同法都属于最基本的法律范畴。很多法律学者介绍过两者的区别;本文探讨的则是两者如何配合以促进经济交易。结合'交易成本'和'新财产权'经济学的深刻见解,本文确定了财产权对现实世界合同行为的两个重要贡献:①先契约责任,或合同订立期间敏感信息泄露风险的防护;②合同执行后的实施灵活性,表现为多种微妙而关键的优势,适用于同时持有财产权的合同当事人。本文认为,随着'新经济'带来一种交易更加密集型的产业结构,拥有更多更为小型、更为专业化的公司,财产的'交易性'角色会愈来愈重要。

Property rights and contract law are two of our most basic legal categories.Many legal scholars describe what makes them different;this Article describes how they work together to promote economic exchange.Incorporating the insights of both 'transaction cost' and 'new property rights' economics,it identifies two crucial contributions that property rights make to real-world contracting:(1) pre-contractual liability,or protection for disclosure of sensitive information in the period leading up to contract formation;and(2) enforcement flexibility after a contract is executed,in the form of many subtle but important advantages that accrue to a contracting party who also holds a property right.This Article argues that property’ s 'transactional' role is growing in importance,as the ' new economy' ushers in a more transaction-intensive industrial structure featuring greater numbers of smaller,more specialized firms.