Ownership at the Stake (Once Again): Housing, Digital Contents, Animals and Robots

Abstract

The liberal conception of ownership of the 19th century is now more remote than ever. This paper discusses the questioning around the current suitability of ownership both for accessing to certain property (housing, to be more specific) and chattels (digital contents, animals and autonomous robots) that have recently flourished, favored by technological advances and the change in the values of the millennials in a context of crisis (since 2007), and see if, at the end of the day, it is adequate or convenient to substitute (e.g. through alternative housing tenures, such as intermediate tenures and collaborative housing, licensing digital contents) or to erode or even eliminate it (e.g. owning animals and robots, tokenization through blockchain).