Real Estate & Property Law

Rose on Liberty, Property, Environmentalism

Posted on July 15, 2010
Carol M. Rose (Arizona) has posted Liberty, Property, Environmentalism on SSRN. Here's the abstract: The environment has often been thought to consist of resources that are unowned, and hence subject to the well-known tragedy of the commons. But in recent...

Notions of Property and Citizenship in New Haven Colony, 1639

Posted on July 14, 2010
I spent the morning reading through the Records of The New Haven Colony and Plantation from 1638 to 1649, as copied and published in 1857. Really interesting stuff touching on early colonial notions of land and ownership. For example, a...

University of Cincinnati Seeks PropertyProf

Posted on July 13, 2010
The University of Cincinnati College of Law invites applications from entry-level and lateral candidates for as many as two tenure-track or tenured faculty positions in a broad number of areas, including agency/partnership/unincorporated business associations, civil procedure, commercial law, corporations, criminal...

Social Media for Property Profs

Posted on July 08, 2010
I'm wondering what kind of social media my fellow property profs use for professional and networking purposes. I taught undergrad business students last year and we had interesting conversations about their relationship with social media as students and how that...

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Monuments and Histories

Posted on July 07, 2010
For years I've read with interest Al Brophy's posts here at PropertyProf on monuments and their contested meanings, particularly with regard to the southern United States. During my stint in the Czech Republic this summer, I got to see concrete...

Lewyn on Coase and Parking Regulation

Posted on July 07, 2010
Michael Lewyn (Florida Coastal) has posted What Would Coase Do? (About Parking Regulation) on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Like many government regulations, municipal minimum parking requirements exist to prevent externalities - most notably the congestion, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions...

Accounting Rule May Trigger Change in Commercial Real Estate

Posted on July 06, 2010
I likely think about accounting standards more than most people involved in real estate law, probably because I was in-house at a public real estate investment trust for five years. So this recent article in the New York Times caught...

Restitution and history lessons

Posted on June 30, 2010
Imagine this: 2,500 innocent residents of country A are kidnapped by the armed forces of country B, transported across the seas and held in forced labor camps, and held as trade bait for country C. Sounds like something from antiquity,...

Are cell phones a nuisance? Maybe to the bees.

Posted on June 30, 2010
Colony collapse disorder (in which bees inexplicably leave their hives and never return) seems like it has been pulled from the plotline of a M. Night Shyamalan horror movie. Given the integral role that bees play in food production, this...

Treanor from Fordham to Georgetown

Posted on June 30, 2010
As Dan Filler reports, Bill Treanor is leaving his post as Dean of Fordham Law School to take up the position of Dean of Georgetown Law. As many readers know, Bill is a noted legal historian, and has written the...

We are Under-Selling Property. Debate.

Posted on June 27, 2010
Tanya's recent post on devising a first-year property curriculum, and my recent experience teaching and researching in the Czech Republic, have brought to the fore of my mind an important -- I'd say critical -- misstep in many property courses:...

NY Court of Appeals Rules in Columbia University Eminent Domain Case

Posted on June 25, 2010
The New York Court of Appeals today upheld the use of eminent domain for an expansion of Columbia University. Ilya Somin comments at the VC; Matt Festa comments at the Land Use Prof Blog; Tim Sandefur comments at the PLF's...

Does anyone read their mortgage documents? Judge Posner didn't.

Posted on June 25, 2010
According to Above the Law, Judge Richard Posner recently admitted at an American Constitution Society conference on regulation that when presented with voluminous documentation at his home equity closing, he signed on the dotted line without reading the paperwork...

Requiring a License to Rent in Fremont, Nebraska

Posted on June 21, 2010
Finally, an issue upon which The Huffington Post and the Daily Paul agree: the "license to rent" ordinance being considered by the voters in Fremont, Nebraska today is a bad idea. Designed to combat illegal immigrants, the ordinance would require...

Crafting the First-Year Property Course

Posted on June 20, 2010
Newbie property law prof here. This summer is marked by great transition for me and my family ? from practice to the academy and from Indianapolis to Winston-Salem. There is so much to do and think about that it is...

Thoughts On Stop the Beach (Steve Eagle)

Posted on June 18, 2010
From Steve Eagle (George Mason): Based on existing Supreme Court jurisprudence and the oral argument, until a few weeks ago I was predicting that the Court would find no taking in Stop the Beach Renourishment and then stop. Having held...

Supreme Court Rules in Stop the Beach

Posted on June 17, 2010
The Supreme Court today ruled in the Stop the Beach judicial takings case. In an opinion by Justice Scalia, the Court rejected the judicial takings claim. The Court's judgment was unanimous, but there were fragmented opinions on various issues, as...

Rose Cuison Villazor on Gross' What Blood Won't Tell

Posted on June 15, 2010
Rose Cuison Villazor has another new essay up on ssrn, "Reading between the (Blood) Lines," which appeared in the Southern California Law Review. It responds to Ariela Gross' new book, What Blood Won't Tell. Here is the abstract: Legal scholars...

Rose Cuison Villazor on Oyama

Posted on June 13, 2010
Rose Cuison Villazor has a new article up on ssrn, "Oyama v. California: At the Intersection of Property, Race and Citizenship." It is forthcoming in the Washington University Law Review. Rose's abstract is as follows: Oyama v. California was a...

Off to AALS

Posted on June 10, 2010
I'm off to New York for the AALS mid-year Property meeting. I hope to see many of you there. Ben Barros [Comments are held for approval, so there will be some delay in posting]

Measuring Impact of Property Scholars

Posted on June 09, 2010
A few weeks ago I posted Brian Leiter's list of most-cited property scholars. As Nicholas Blomley and I discussed in the comments to that post, Professor Leiter's list is parochial by design: it includes only professors at US law schools....

It Makes a Great Gift!

Posted on June 09, 2010
Or at least a good addition to your school's library. Amazon now (finally) has copies in stock of Hernando de Soto and Property in a Market Economy, edited by yours truly. Ben Barros [Comments are held for approval, so there...

Singer on The Anti-Apartheid Principle in American Property Law

Posted on June 08, 2010
Joseph William Singer (Harvard) has posted The Anti-Apartheid Principle in American Property Law on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Recently, many federal courts have been interpreting civil rights laws to allow racially discriminatory treatment of customers in retail stores and racial...

Fennell on Possession

Posted on June 08, 2010
Lee Anne Fennell (Chicago) has posted Possession Puzzles on SSRN. Here's the abstract: This brief essay was delivered in slightly different form as the Third in the Wolf Family Lecture Series on the American Law of Real Property at the...

Grimmelmann on the Internet as Semicommons

Posted on June 08, 2010
James Grimmelmann (New York Law School) has posted The Internet is a Semicommons on SSRN. Here's the abstract: The Internet is a semicommons. Private property in servers and network links coexists with a shared communications platform. This distinctive combination both...

Wright on the Denominator Problem

Posted on June 08, 2010
Danaya C. Wright (Florida) has posted A New Time for Denominators: Toward a Dynamic Theory of Property in Regulatory Takings Relevant Parcel Analysis on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Despite the Supreme Court?s 25-years of fierce forays and rapid retreats in...

Lovett on Rand Paul, Private Property, and Deep Water Horizons

Posted on June 03, 2010
John Lovett (Loyola/New Orleans) has an op-ed in the New Orleans Times Picayune on Rand Paul, Private Property, and the Deep Water Horizons spill. The op-ed is thoughtful, provocative, and entertaining. Here's one great passage: One of the few silver...

Lehavi on Property and Standards

Posted on June 03, 2010
Amnon Lehavi (Interdisciplinary Center Herzliyah - Radzyner School of Law) has posted The Dynamic Law of Property: Theorizing the Role of Legal Standards on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Property law is engaged in a constant conflict between stability and dynamism...

Hester and Wright on The Evolution of Railroad Easements

Posted on June 03, 2010
Jeffrey Hester (William J. Tucker & Associates) and Danaya C. Wright (Florida) have posted Pipes, Wires, and Bicycles: Rails-to-Trails, Utility Licenses, and the Shifting Scope of Railroad Easements from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries on SSRN...

Way on Informal Homeownership

Posted on June 03, 2010
Heather K. Way (Texas) has posted Informal Homeownership in the United States and the Law on SSRN. Here's the abstract: This article examines how millions of lower-income families in the United States attempt to acquire title to their homes informally,...

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