Date: 2014
Type: Article
Property rights in conflict : wild berry-picking and the Nordic tradition of allemansrätt
Scandinavian economic history review, 2014, Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 266–289
LA MELA, Matti, Property rights in conflict : wild berry-picking and the Nordic tradition of allemansrätt, Scandinavian economic history review, 2014, Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 266–289
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/44348
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
Wild berries became a valuable export article in Sweden and Finland at the end of the nineteenth century. At the time, property rights over wild berries were not explicitly defined, and in both countries, proposals were made to subject the berries to the landowner. The proposals did not pass and wild berry-picking on another's land continued, as seen from today's perspective, to be available to everyone. This paper looks at the socioeconomic context of wild berry-picking, and asks whether the principle of allemansrätt – a Nordic tradition of public access to nature – played a role in why wild berries did not become private property. By focusing on the Finnish penal code debate of 1888 and the process of stabilising the property rights, the paper rejects the idea of continuity. It argues that (1) the traditional allemansrätt is debatable as a historical concept and shows how (2) the contingent political process created the conditions, and economic imagination the impetus, that wild berries were not privatised but turned into an open resource.
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/44348
Full-text via DOI: 10.1080/03585522.2013.876928
ISSN: 0358-5522; 1750-2837
Keyword(s): Wild berries Allemansrätt Property rights Finland Sweden
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