Is Law Unbounded? Property Rights and Control of Social Groupings

Abstract:     
This review essay follows up on a suggested model for resolving problems of neighborhood externalities and exclusionary associational patterns in metropolitan areas. The model is based on a property rights regime of “alienable entitlements,” as articulated by Lee Anne Fennell in The Unbounded Home (2009). The essay frames this model as promoting a groundbreaking approach to the fundamental quandary over the role of law as a tool for broad-based social change, and asks if legal rules can fully absorb the multiple types of societal effects that influence the nature of contemporary homeownership. It assesses the normative desirability and practical feasibility of controlling social exclusion through property rights.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 30

Keywords: property, housing, land, metropolitan areas, segregation, exclusion, entitlements, law and economics, law and society, externality, constitutional law, public law, private law, Brown, fair housing, social change, causality, jurisprudence, community, game theory, options, local government, bargaining

JEL Classification: C70, D10, H71, J6, K00, K11, R1, R2, R31, R51

Accepted Paper Series