Franchise Encroachment

Abstract

Territoriality, including the fear of encroachment, evidently is one of humanity’s primal, ubiquitous concerns. No matter the context (personal or commercial), no matter the group (small or large, simple or sophisticated), territorial concepts present themselves. Examples abound. For instance, in May 2008, various news outlets displayed photographs taken from helicopters of a previously uncontacted — that is, completely isolated — tribe inhabiting a section of the border between Brazil and Peru. Such discoveries are not as rare as one might imagine. Worldwide, there are approximately 100 indigenous groups thought to have had no contact with outsiders. With more than half of these aboriginal peoples living in the Amazon River basin, Brazil has a governmental agency dedicated to the mission of tracking ‘‘uncontacted tribes’’ and protecting them from encroachment.

This concern over territory — one’s right to live and develop — reflects a fundamental human value, whether for a seemingly primitive tribe or for the most complex social and business arrangements. And so we can see the nexus between people occupying the most remote terrain on the planet and those who have staked out a claim — a franchise — to market rights in even the most crowded of cities or in other commercial settings. If, as is often postulated, humanity is inherently aggressive, then a corresponding conclusion must be that all people, from Amazon tribesmen to Manhattan businesspersons, naturally fear others’ incursions onto their turf. To protect one’s market, one’s right to a territory, is thus a matter of instinct and civilization. Anxiety about real or potential encroachment thus extends through all forms of society — from a paternalistic apprehension over possible intrusions upon the most simple, hunting-and-gathering clan, to the concerns, purely self-interested or otherwise, of any discerning party ensconced in the modern, complex, contractual enterprise known as the business-format franchise.

Keywords: Franchise, Business Law

JEL Classification: K00, K2