財產權之交易觀

A Transactional View of Property Rights

財產權與合同法都屬於最基本的法律範疇。很多法律學者介紹過兩者的區別；本文探討的則是兩者如何配合以促進經濟交易。結合“交易成本”和“新財產權”經濟學的深刻見解，本文確定了財產權對現實世界合同行為的兩個重要貢獻：(1)先契約責任，或合同訂立期間敏感信息洩露風險的防護；(2)合同執行後的實施靈活性，表現為多種微妙而關鍵的優勢，適用於同時持有財產權的合同當事人。本文認為，隨著“新經濟”帶來一種交易更加密集型的產業結構，擁有更多更為小型、更為專業化的公司，財產的“交易性”角色會愈來愈重要。

Property rights and contract law are two of our most basic legal categoriles. 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 contrac1ting: (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.