Grazing Rights and Public Lands in New Zealand and the Western United States: A Comparative Perspective

Private rights in public resources have a propensity to dominate resources for the private benefit, unless the property rights framework clearly demarcates and vigilantly enforces the private/public divide. This proposition is examined in the public lands of the western United States and New Zealand from the comparative perspective of private rights, as seen in the natural resource of pasturage, and of public rights, as seen in the natural resource of recreation. Grazing use rights in these two jurisdictions share more in common than a superficial examination may suggest. Yet, it is the potency of their relatively fewer differences that has fed the expansion of private rights at the expense of public rights in New Zealand's public lands.