This thesis deals with appropriate legislation concerning common utilities, such as infra-structural facilities and natural resources, which can regulate construction, maintenance, use and financing. Appropriate legislation can be viewed in the two main perspectives, effi-ciency and equity, and the thesis concerns primarily on efficiency. The purpose is to develop an analytical model, which can be used to facilitate structured assessments concerning the management of common utilities. The problem field concerned is of great complexity, and the model is therefore to be viewed as a support for decision-making, not as an instrument capable of delivering ready-made solutions. To structure the problem area it’s divided into three parts, the social, physical and institu-tional environments. The social environment is concerned with factors, such as group size and amount of trust and social capital, which can influence the feasibility of co-operation. The analysis leads to a classification of three social groups: Close-knit, loosely-knit and anonymous. The physical environment is concerned with characteristics of utilities, which influences need for, and feasibility of, co-operation. Rivalry of use and excludability are identified as important factors in this aspect. By combining them six types of goods can be identified: Private goods, club goods, common pool resources, toll goods, public goods and local pub-lic goods. The institutional environment is concerned with rules, which can control the use of com-mon utilities. Two concepts are identified as pivotal: property rights regimes and decision-making procedures. There are four property rights regimes: Individual rights, group rights, public rights (limited and unlimited) and no rights. Furthermore there are three decision-making procedures: Market regulation, group decision-making and public decision-making. A fourth possibility is no decision making-forum. By linking together social groups and types of goods a matrix is obtained in which each square represents a unique combination of social and physical environment. In this analyti-cal framework it is analysed which combinations of property rights regimes and decision-making procedures that are best suited to each square. In the end, Swedish legislation on roads, water and sewerage installations and aesthetic design of buildings is analysed with aid of the analytical model. / QC 20100825