Real Estate & Property Law

Barros on Homestead and Other Legal Protections of the Home

Posted on March 18, 2010
I've posted a short encyclopedia entry called Homestead and Other Legal Protections of the Home on SSRN. Here's the abstract: In many legal contexts, homes are given more legal protection than other types of property. This additional protection can be...

Teaching Real Estate Transactions

Posted on March 17, 2010
I am working on developing a 3 credit course in Real Estate Transactions for the fall semester at Wake Forest Law School. I would love to hear from PropertyProfs who are already teaching such a class. Here is the blurb...

Oliveri on Discriminatory Housing Advertisements On-Line

Posted on March 16, 2010
Rigel Christine Oliveri (Missouri) has posted Discriminatory Housing Advertisements On-Line: Lessons from Craigslist on SSRN. Here's the abstract: The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to publish discriminatory housing advertisements. This has long been applied to newspapers, which have effectively...

Malloy on Mortgage Market Reform

Posted on March 15, 2010
Robin Paul Malloy (Syracuse) has posted Mortgage Market Reform and the Fallacy of Self-Correcting Markets on SSRN. Here's the abstract: The article discusses the mortgage market collapse in connection to the broader financial crisis. In developing the argument I proceed...

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Roberts on Federally Granted Railroad Rights of Way

Posted on March 15, 2010
Darwin P. Roberts (U.S. Attorney's Office) has posted The Legal History of Federally Granted Railroad Rights of Way on SSRN. Here's the abstract: In the nineteenth century, the United States government granted railroads thousands of miles of rights of way...

Garnett on Order-Maintenance and Land Use Policy

Posted on March 15, 2010
Nicole Stelle Garnett (Notre Dame) has posted Order-Maintenance Agenda as Land Use Policy on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Debates about the broken windows hypothesis focus almost exclusively on whether the order-maintenance agenda represents wise criminal law policy ? specifically on...

Mahoney on the Tension Between Positive and Negative Rights in Eminent Domain

Posted on March 14, 2010
Bran Frederick Mahoney, a student at George Mason, has posted The Greater Good or Property Rights? Resolving the Tension between Positive and Negative Rights in Eminent Domain on SSRN. Here's the abstract: This paper examines the background of takings law...

The Stagnation of the Common Law of Property(?)

Posted on March 14, 2010
I just finished my seventh and final "property year in review" article for the Indiana Law Review. Each year, I abstract and comment on "noteworthy" decisions in Indiana property law or new statutes. Since this year is my last article,...

Davidson on Values and Value Creation in Public-Private Transactions

Posted on March 13, 2010
Nestor M. Davidson (Colorado) has posted Values and Value Creation in Public-Private Transactions on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Scholars have developed a significant body of literature exploring the work of deal lawyers with the essential insight that attorneys acting as...

Davidson on Housing and Community Development Policy

Posted on March 12, 2010
Nestor M. Davidson (Colorado) has posted Reconciling People and Place in Housing and Community Development Policy on SSRN. Here's the abstract: In housing and community development theory, scholars have long debated tensions between place-based policies and those that focus on...

Brinig and Garnett on Catholic Schools and Broken Windows

Posted on March 12, 2010
Margaret F. Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett (Notre Dame) have posted Catholic Schools and Broken Windows on SSRN. Here's the abstract: This paper represents the second stage of an effort to test previously unstudied implications of a dramatic shift in...

Garnett on Unbundling Homeownership

Posted on March 12, 2010
Nicole Stelle Garnett (Notre Dame) has posted Unbundling Homeownership: Regional Reforms from the Inside Out on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Two vexing puzzles plague American land use regulators. The first puzzle is how to protect property owners from harmful spillovers...

Anderson on Race, Poverty, and Exclusion at the Urban Fringe

Posted on March 11, 2010
Michelle Wilde Anderson (UC Berkeley) has posted Cities Inside Out: Race, Poverty, and Exclusion at the Urban Fringe on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Across the country, from Aberdeen, North Carolina to Modesto, California, city growth has bypassed hundreds of low-income...

Gaba on Locke and the Takings Clause

Posted on March 11, 2010
Jeffrey M. Gaba (SMU) has posted John Locke and the Meaning of the Takings Clause on SSRN. Here's the abstract: John Locke, political philosopher and all around polymath, stands as a central figure in the development of Western conceptions of...

Kent & McMillian on Deadwood and Property Rights

Posted on March 11, 2010
Lance McMillian and I have posted our latest paper, "The World of Deadwood: Property Rights and the Search for Human Identity," on SSRN. Here's the abstract: The year is 1876. Gold has been discovered in the fledgling camp of Deadwood,...

HOAs Consider "Reverse Foreclosure"

Posted on March 11, 2010
We just wrapped up our unit on promissory servitudes in my Property course. As is the case every year, the discussion of Neponsit Property Owners' Ass'n v. Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank produced a lot of questions from the students. Given...

Fennell Lecture at Florida

Posted on March 11, 2010
On March 17, Lee Fennell (Chicago) will give the Third Annual Wolf Family Lecture in the American Law of Real Property. The lecture will take place at 11:00 a.m. in the University of Florida's Levin College of Law Chesterfield Smith...

Owen on Urbanization, Water Quality, and the Regulated Landscape

Posted on March 11, 2010
Dave Owen (Maine) has posted Urbanization, Water Quality, and the Regulated Landscape on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Watershed scientists frequently describe urbanization as a primary cause of water quality degradation, and recent studies conclude that even in lightly-developed watersheds, urbanization...

Salkin on Affordable Housing

Posted on March 10, 2010
Patricia Salkin (Albany) has posted Affordable Housing, Distribution of Powers and Economic Crisis in the United States on SSRN. Here's the abstract: This paper considers the history of affordable housing in the Unites States, and discusses the further leadership role...

Nelson on Federalization of Mortgage Foreclosure Law

Posted on March 10, 2010
Grant Nelson (Pepperdine) has posted Confronting the Mortgage Meltdown: A Brief for the Federalization of State Mortgage Foreclosure Law on SSRN. Here's the abstract: This Article argues for federal preemption of state procedures governing the foreclosure of mortgages and security...

Preservation Law Digest

Posted on March 10, 2010
Folks interested in issues related to historic preservation and land conservation should check out the Preservation Law Digest. Interesting stuff. Ben Barros [Comments are held for approval, so there will be some delay in posting]

Stahl on Local Growth Politics

Posted on March 10, 2010
Kenneth Stahl (Chapman) has posted The Artifice of Local Growth Politics: At-Large Elections, Ballot-Box Zoning and Judicial Review on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Municipalities throughout the nation are plagued by a seemingly unresolvable conflict between development interests and homeowners? groups...

Davidson and Dyal-Chand on Property in Crisis

Posted on March 09, 2010
Nestor M. Davidson (Colorado) and Rashmi Dyal-Chand (Northeastern) have posted Property in Crisis on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Property law generally develops gradually, with doctrine slowly accreting in the interstices of daily conflict and the larger culture of property likewise...

Save the Date - ALPS 2011

Posted on March 09, 2010
The first-annual Association for Law, Property, and Society conference held last week was fantastic. If you didn't go, you should strongly consider going next year. The next annual meeting will be held on Friday, March 4, and Saturday, March 5,...

Off to ALPS

Posted on March 04, 2010
I'm off to the ALPS conference in DC. Hope to see some of you there! Ben Barros [Comments are held for approval, so there will be some delay in posting]

United States Land Loss to Sprawl

Posted on March 04, 2010
A new study published in PLoS One attempts to quantify land loss to sprawl during the 1990s. Here's the paper abstract: Urban growth reduces open space in and around cities, impacting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Using land-cover and population data,...

Property Theory and HBO's Deadwood (part 5)

Posted on March 03, 2010
I previously discussed how Deadwood portrays the link between property and power -- i.e., how property creates a sphere of sovereignty that can be used as a force both for tyranny and liberty. In this final post on Deadwood, I'd...

AALS Program on Water Law for Next Annual Meeting

Posted on March 02, 2010
Professor Kali Murray of the Marquette University Law School and Chair of the 2010 AALS Section on Property Law is pleased to announce that the Section will be doing a joint program with the Agricultural Section (where Professor David Myers...

Eminent Domain Battle in Virginia

Posted on March 02, 2010
Fox News reported yesterday about an eminent domain battle in Virginia over the amount properly awarded in just compensation. The city that condemned the property offered approximately $20 million, but the landowner claims he received market offers for more than...

Cemeteries, Land Use, and a Survey Invitation

Posted on March 01, 2010
My current scholarly obsession is cemeteries. I am fascinated by the enormous cultural change in the American approach to "final disposition" (burial, cremation, etc.) over the past 100+ years and the interplay with the law. In many important respects, the...

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