ABSTRACT
Literature on the management of commons over the past 20 years has seen a productive cross-fertilization between historians and scholars working on contemporary common pool resources (CPRs). In the search for examples of sustainable management institutions, CPR researchers often look to the past for evidence and experience that may inform the present (e.g. Ostrom, 1990, pp58–88). Conversely, historians have used Elinor Ostrom's CPR design principles as a framework for analysing governance systems in the past (e.g. Fleming, 1998; Winchester, 2000; De Moor et al, 2002; Straughton, 2008). Enduring management regimes were a feature of commons across Europe from the medieval period until the mid 19th century and, in some cases, beyond: a recent survey concluded that few regions in Europe ‘did not fulfil most of the criteria laid down by Ostrom for long-enduring, self-managed commons’. Universal features included quantitative limitations and seasonal restrictions on resource exploitation, monitoring systems, and a scale of penalties against those who broke the rules (De Moor et al, 2002, pp250–251). Management systems governing common land in England and Wales were no exception.
