Sustainable Obligations in (Dutch) Property Law

Abstract

Private law does not operate in isolation. Throughout history, private lawyers have been aware of the limits of their field. In property law, this traditionally means referring to public law – especially public law limitations to property rights. The juxtaposition so created is that private law stands for freedom and autonomy and it is public law, in the form of constitutional law or administrative law, that forms most restrictions. With the exception of the doctrine of abuse of rights, for example, the ideas surrounding the right of ownership are virtually limitless. The owner is the person that can dispose over his property in the most absolute manner. In this contribution, I will first explore the theoretical foundations of property law and their importance (section 2). I will then turn to property and human flourishing (section 3), obligations in property law (section 4) and deal with the Dutch qualitative obligation (section 5).

Keywords: property law, sustainability