Property

The law of property determines who gets what and why. It fundamentally organizes social life by allocating wealth, status and power. Ownership means control over land and housing, and also over technology, ideas, and symbols. Property structures our everyday lives, too, in ways that may be nearly invisible to us, as we "just know" where we can go, where we are trespassing, etc. This course provides an essential introduction to property law: what is the legal significance of ownership, how does it arise, what forms does it take, how are conflicts among owners prevented or resolved, and how may ownership end? We will also touch on questions such as why we have property at all, how it came to be distributed as it is, and how these issues are related to the struggles for inclusion and democracy in American law.