Introduction: Property and Language, or, the Ghost of the Fifth Panel

Abstract

In this introductory lecture to the "Symposium on The Properties of Carol Rose," the author discusses a panel topic that dropped away from the original program plan, that is, "Property and Language." She argues that though formally missing from the symposium, modes of language and communication - understood broadly as symbols, stories, and pictures - are critical to the understanding of property, since so much of property consists of the signaling of claims and responses to those signals. She further argues that language and communication in property can act as a bridge between the humanities and law-and-economics in the study of law more generally. She then examines some communicative issues that appear in the symposium's other topics - commons and the public domain; nature; takings; and gifts, bargains and power.

Keywords: property, language, communication, symbolism, law and humanities, law and economics

JEL Classification: K11