Introduction: The Story of Property Stories

Abstract

In this introductory chapter to the second edition of Property Stories (forthcoming 2009, Foundation Press), we provide our readers with a framework for our contributors' fifteen chapters on leading cases in Property law. The initial three chapters (by A.W. Brian Simpson, Maxwell J. Mehlman, and R.H. Helmholz) help to define our understanding of the nature of property and ownership. These chapters focus on the social policy underlying property regimes, the types of things that can be subject to ownership, and how ownership can be acquired and lost without the formal consent of the losing party. The next seven chapters (by Susan F. French, Patricia A. Cain, Richard H. Chused, James C. Smith, Carol M. Rose, Peter W. Salsich, Jr., and Gerald Korngold) explore the private ordering of property interests. They illustrate the extent of property rights and how "the bundle of sticks" may be shared among parties, and describe how consensual arrangements may be created to share, acquire, and transfer property rights. The final five chapters (by Jeffrey E. Stake, Vicki L. Been, Andrew P. Morriss, Stewart E. Sterk, and David L. Callies) deal with the interaction of the individual property owner and the community. Society's interaction with private property may be manifested by government, quasi-governmental entities such as homeowners associations, or application by courts of a broad and relatively undefined concept of the "public interest."