Oak Leaves and the Origins of the 1927 Radio Act: Comment

Thomas Hazlett

Public Choice, 1998, vol. 95, issue 3-4, 277-85

Abstract: The Radio Act of 1927 was enacted so as to preempt the common law property rights then being asserted over radio waves, thus facilitating a political equilibrium where broadcasters and regulators shared license rents. The Oak Leaves case of November 1926, awarding AM frequency rights to a private broadcaster on the homesteading principle, helped motivate Congress, steering it towards a 'public interest' licensing law. The Twight paper, while ostensibly critiquing this now standard view in the law and economics literature, actually endorses it. The existing history stands corroborated, uncorrected. Copyright 1998 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Date: 1998
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