Registries
Abstract: Registries are crucial and under-theorized. Registries can enhance or erode the value of property rights; sometimes, they create rights that would not have existed without them. Furthermore, registries and title information constantly reshape the configuration of assets. We analyze the intricate relationship among title information, rights and assets in the domain of property, as mediated by registries. We highlight the triple role that registries perform for property owners. They simultaneously perform a facilitative role by easing transactions between willing sellers and buyers, an obstructive rule by hindering non-consensual encroachments and takings of assets, and an enabling function by allowing owners to locate and use their own lost assets. Additionally, we posit that perfect registries, even if possible, are undesirable. Perfect information about assets and legal rights may result in the destruction, dismembering and mutilation of the asset by non-consensual takers to make the asset unrecognizable, as exemplified by “chopped” stolen cars, or, conversely, to attempts to engage in “identity theft” in order to give thieves the benefit of the registered rights. Relatedly, we argue that the registries are desirable when it is impossible or difficult to alter the defining characteristic of the underlying asset. This explains why there are registries for non-transformable assets, such as land, but not for transformable assets like mass production goods and many natural resources. Finally, we address the question of which rights should be covered by registries and how much legal deference should be given to them. Our framework is significant for practical reasons as well. For example, our analysis sounds a cautionary note as to the ability of registries of copyrighted works to curb unlawful appropriation and distribution.
