Grandfathering: Environmental Uses and Impacts

Abstract

“Grandfathering” grants preferential treatment to existing resource users over new entrants based on prior use. It is based on conceptions of first-in-time or prior appropriation and applied in a broad range of environmental and resource issues. We synthesize legal, economic, and political science perspectives to find that grandfathering removes incentives for users to anticipate regulations with proactive abatement. We analyze institutions ranging from long-enduring common property regimes to climate negotiations and find examples of how grandfathering can be detrimental to sustainability but also when it may be a mechanism with positive or necessary properties to bring stakeholders to the table.