Real Estate & Property Law

Is the Rwandan Government Laying the Groundwork for Peter Erlinder's Death?

Posted on June 02, 2010
Readers -- I don't want to be overly-dramatic, but I am now gravely concerned about my colleague Peter Erlinder. Yesterday, according to the government-controlled press, Peter, who suffers from hypertension, apparently became ill during "five hours of intense interrogation" and...

Professor Peter Erlinder Arrested in Rwanda

Posted on May 28, 2010
Forgive me -- I know this does not relate to property law, but I hope you'll agree it's worth the space here under the circumstances. William Mitchell College of Law Professor Peter Erlinder, my colleague, is passionately devoted to the...

White on Emotion and Strategic Default

Posted on May 23, 2010
Brent T. White (Arizona) has posted Take This House and Shove It: The Emotional Drivers of Strategic Default on SSRN. Here's the abstract: An increasingly influential view is that strategic defaulters make a rational choice to default because they have...

Dagan on the Pluralism of Property

Posted on May 22, 2010
Hanoch Dagan (Tel Aviv) has posted From Independence and Interdependence to the Pluralism of Property on SSRN. Here's the abstract: This paper is one chapter of a collection of essays ? Property, State, and Community ? which will be published...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Greetings from Prague

Posted on May 22, 2010
[note: I apologize for the size of the pictures; I am still trying to figure out how to shrink them] I am safely ensconsed in my little apartment in the lovely Mala Strana district of Prague, where the past is...

Gentrification and Its Discontents

Posted on May 21, 2010
Benjamin Schwarz has a article called Gentrification and Its Discontents over at the Atlantic, which will be of interest to folks interested in urban spaces. (H/T Matt Berger). Ben Barros [Comments are held for approval, so there will be some...

Rodriguez-Dod on Protecting Tenants from Foreclosure Evictions

Posted on May 21, 2010
Eloisa C. Rodriguez-Dod (Nova Southeastern) has posted Stop Shutting the Door on Renters: Protecting Tenants from Foreclosure Evictions on SSRN. Here's the abstract: This article discusses existing and proposed federal and state law affecting tenants? rights in foreclosure...

Salkin and Lavine on Community Benefits Agreements and Comprehensive Planning

Posted on May 21, 2010
Patricia Salkin and Amy Lavine (Albany) have posted Community Benefits Agreements and Comprehensive Planning: Balancing Community Empowerment and the Police Power on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Traditionally, the states have empowered local governments to develop plans and implement regulations for...

Bronin on Curbing Energy Sprawl

Posted on May 21, 2010
Sara C. Bronin (UConn) has posted Curbing Energy Sprawl on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Energy sprawl - the phenomenon of ever-increasing consumption of land, particularly in rural areas, required to site energy generation facilities - is a real and growing...

Harris on Recourse and Non-Recourse Mortgages

Posted on May 21, 2010
Ron Harris (Tel Aviv) has posted Recourse and Non-Recourse Mortgages: Foreclosure, Bankruptcy, Policy on SSRN. Here's the abstract: The recourse-non-recourse dimension is fundamental in any loan as it deals most directly with the pool of assets out of which lender...

Most Cited Property Scholars

Posted on May 17, 2010
Brian Leiter has posted the most recent iteration of his scholarly impact study, which includes list of the most cited Property scholars. Professor Leiter provides a good amount of detail on his methodology, but the most important thing to note...

Ely on Stevens, Kagan, and Property Rights

Posted on May 17, 2010
James W. Ely Jr. (Vanderbilt) has a column in today's Washington Times titled Stevens, Kagan and property rights. (H/T Ilya Somin). Ely remarks that "Justice Stevens consistently dismissed property rights claims and voted to strengthen government control over the lives...

Off to Prague

Posted on May 15, 2010
On Tuesday I leave for Prague, where I'll be teaching my Comparative Property Rights course to American students at the Charles University Faculty of Law. I'll continue posting from Prague where, in addition to teaching, I'll be doing some researching...

Arruñada and Lehavi on New Models for Residential Development and Fiance

Posted on May 10, 2010
Benito Arruñada (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and Amnon Lehavi (Interdisciplinary Center Herzliyah - Radzyner School of Law) have posted Prime Property Institutions for a Subprime Era: Exploring Innovative Models of Residential Development and Finance on SSRN...

The Human Face of the Foreclosure Endgame

Posted on May 10, 2010
David Streitfeld had a fascinating and sobering piece in the New York Times this week, chronicling a day in the life of Joseph Laubinger, in essence a foreclosure 'fixer' who represents lenders in their last interactions with former homeowners still....

Cert Petition in Just Compensation Case

Posted on May 07, 2010
Ilya Somin at the VC has a post describing a cert petition in a potentially important Just Compensation case, City of Milwaukee Post No. 2874, Veterans of Foreign Wars v. Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee. The case involves...

Eminent Domain and the Political Process

Posted on May 07, 2010
Can the political process protect property owners from the use of eminent domain? Consider this story from Fox News: Officials in Auburn, New York threatened to possibly use eminent domain to force property owners to sell their land so a...

The Horcrux Theory of Property

Posted on May 04, 2010
Among the several thousand articles I'm allegedly writing is one tentatively entitled The Horcrux Theory of Property. A confluence of events and ideas this week has prompted me to write about it here, but first a little background. For those...

White on the Morality of Strategic Default

Posted on May 03, 2010
Brent T. White (Arizona) has posted Beyond Guilt in the Housing Crisis: The Morality of Strategic Default on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Responding to those who argue that homeowners who strategically default on their mortgages are immoral and socially irresponsible,...

The Blazed Locust Tree

Posted on April 29, 2010
I haven't been blogging that much lately, in part because my wife and I are in the process of buying a new house. The house was built in 1810, and the property is in a pretty rural area. The property...

Acceptable Deviance and Property Rights: a shameless plug and request for feedback

Posted on April 26, 2010
A draft of my article Acceptable Deviance and Property Rights (forthcoming, Connecticut Law Review) is finally up and running at SSRN. Frankly, I already have some changes in mind for it. I would really appreciate any feedback anyone would care...

The Extraordinary Story of Dr. Karel Des Fours Walderode, Part II

Posted on April 24, 2010
When we last left off, our protagonist Dr. Walderode was a citizen and permanent resident of the newly created Czech Republic. [For those keeping score, his family estate in Bohemia had, by this time, been situated at different times in...

The Extraordinary Story of Dr. Karel Des Fours Walderode

Posted on April 23, 2010
If the history of the 20th century in Europe could be encapsulated in the life of one man, that man might be Dr. Karel Des Four Walderode. He was born in 1904 and died in 2000, and his life sat...

Chiappetta on The Practical Meaning of Property

Posted on April 21, 2010
Vincent Chiappetta (Willamette) has posted The (Practical) Meaning of Property on SSRN. Here's the abstract: The paper argues that defining property functionally ? as a flexible tool for implementing all manner of social decisions allocating control over available resources rather...

Salkin on Renewable Energy and Land Use Regulation Parts I and II

Posted on April 21, 2010
Patricia Salkin (Albany) has posted Renewable Energy and Land Use Regulation (Part 1) and Renewable Energy and Land Use Regulation (Part 2) on SSRN. Here are the abstracts: Part I of a two-part set of materials on renewable energy and...

Hudson on The Public Trust and the Lucas Remand

Posted on April 20, 2010
Blake Hudson (Stetson) has posted The Public and Wildlife Trust Doctrines and the Untold Story of the Lucas Remand on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Government attempts to protect ecosystems on private lands are often thwarted by Fifth Amendment takings claims...

Singer on Original Acquisition of Property

Posted on April 20, 2010
Joseph William Singer (Harvard) has posted Original Acquisition of Property: From Conquest and Possession to Democracy and Equal Opportunity on SSRN. Here's the abstract: First possession is said to be the root of title but the first possession theory suffers...

Sandercock and Lebovits on NY Landlord-Tenant Law

Posted on April 20, 2010
Margaret B. Sandercock and Gerald Lebovits (St. John's) have posted New York Residential Landlord-Tenant Law 101 for the Transactional Attorney on SSRN. Here's the to-the-point abstract: This article discusses the basics of New York residential landlord-tenant law for the transactional...

Town Can't Close Road at Border

Posted on April 20, 2010
A town in Connecticut tried to close a road at the town line to prevent the road from being used for access to a major residential development in the adjoining town. No way, said the Connecticut Supreme Court. From the...

Legal Education and the Housing Bubble

Posted on April 20, 2010
Over at the Conglomerate Blog, Christine Hurt (Illinois) has an interesting post comparing law school debt to the sub-prime mortgage market. Here's a taste: For a couple of decades now (and until a few years ago), the conventional wisdom was...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.