Robert C. Ellickson is an American property law scholar.
Ellickson is the author of numerous books and articles on land use, property, and social norms, and is best known for his 1991 book Order Without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes.
In that book, a study of ranchers and farmers in Shasta County, California, he argues that, contrary to the Coase theorem, neighbors in close-knit societies reach efficient outcomes in land and property use not by bargaining around legal rules but by largely ignoring them in favor of informal social norms.
In 2008, Ellickson was awarded the Brigham–Kanner Property Rights Prize by the College of William & Mary School of Law for his body of work advancing the cause of private property rights.
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