From the Manor to the Ranch: A comparative study of common right development in the United States and England

Abstract

This thesis tracks the development of common right concerning livestock grazing, from legal codification in England, through the colonization of America and into the creation of the vast grazing commons administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the western United States. By following landmark legal decisions and legislation, the development from manorial legacy in England, to natural law infused legislation in the early United States, it is demonstrated that the current BLM grazing programs are not only a grazing common, with a distinctly unique form of common right, but also result of the post-colonial evolution of commons in the United States.