A fresh legal argument on what it means to own land, navigating issues of eminent domain, sprawl, and conservation Private property poses a great dilemma in American culture. We revere the institution and are quick to protect private-property rights, yet we are troubled when landowners cause harm to their neighbors and communities, especially when new development fuels sprawl and degrades the environment. Recent Supreme Court cases and new state laws around eminent domain have generated great controversy, and yet many people are unsure where they stand on this issue. In this wide-ranging inquiry, law professor Eric Freyfogle explores the inner workings of the familiar but poorly understood institution of private property. He identifies the three threats it currently faces: government mismanagement, the recently reinvigorated property rights movement, and conservation groups' efforts to buy tracts of land in order to protect them. He then offers a solution in the middle ground between the extreme sides of these debates. In On Private Property, Freyfogle gives glimpses of landownership's surprising past, revealing its complex links to liberty and ultimately showing why private property rights must remain consistent with a community's overall good. In conclusion, Freyfogle constructs piece by piece a provocative new vision of landownership, at once respectful of private interests yet responsive to communal needs. "Freyfogle's new book, which probably should have been titled "Roll Over, John Locke," is just what the public debate over property rights needs. Straight talk, and an invitation to open a conversation about the real issues." --Joseph L. Sax, author of Playing Darts with a Rembrandt: Public and Private Rights in Cultural Treasures "A fresh perspective and penetrating legal and historical analysis of an issue that will continue to be in the forefront of land policy in the 21st century." --Anthony Flint, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, author of This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America "In a work that eschews easy slogans, Eric Freyfogle proves the truth about American property rights--that original intent, early court opinions, and the realities of modern society all mandate that ownership brings with it weighty but reasonable responsibilities to the larger community. This beautifully-articulated book, at once bold and thoughtful, is bound to become a classic in American constitutional and property law." --Charles Wilkinson, Distinguished University Professor and Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado and author of Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West

Authoritative yet concise, Essentials of Real Estate Law, Second Edition, offers students a carefully crafted overview of real estate law. Within a helpful and logical framework, the authors walk the student through every step of the process of purchasing and managing both residential and commercial real estate. With a practical approach that features problems, chapter assignments, realistic examples, and sample forms, this text offers a real-world approach to the practice of real estate law. New to the Second Edition: Updated and expanded forms and charts included throughout the book New cases focus on current issues Updated examples and exercises Streamlined presentation makes the material more accessible and easier to teach New Applying the Law boxed feature focuses on practical, real-world skills Professors and students will benefit from: Well-written textual explanations Complete coverage of Real Estate Law Real property interests Purchasing, financing, and conveying real estate Owning and operating real estate Succinctly edited cases that give students the opportunity to read case law Stand-alone chapters that can be adapted to fit any syllabus Focus on Ethics text boxes that highlight the responsibilities of real estate professionals A wealth of teaching tools in every chapter Review Questions Learning Objectives Chapter Outlines Introductions Definitions of new terms in the margins Practical exercises and applying the law boxes

First published in 2000. The materials in this collection are drawn from many disciplines, including economics, law, philosophy and political science. Yet they are all directed to a topic that is worthy of examination from multiple perspectives: Liberty, Property and the Law. Stated in this general form, this topic is as broad as law itself. Lawyers must have recourse to the grand principles of economic and social thought, but tempered with an awareness of how the novel circumstances of an individual case can call into question some of the elements of the grandest of theories. In this volume, therefore, the emphasis is as much on the points that separate different forms of property as it is on the conceptual theme that links all forms of property rights together.

This innovative and interdisciplinary book makes a major contribution to common pool resource studies. It offers a new perspective on the sustainable governance of common resources, grounded in contemporary and archival research on the common lands of England and Wales - an important common resource with multiple, and often conflicting, uses. It encompasses ecologically sensitive environments and landscapes, is an important agricultural resource and provides public access to the countryside for recreation. Contested Common Land brings together historical and contemporary legal scholarship to examine the environmental governance of common land from c.1600 to the present day. It uses four case studies to illustrate the challenges presented by the sustainable management of common property from an interdisciplinary perspective - from the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, North Norfolk coast and the Cambrian Mountains. These demonstrate that cultural assumptions concerning the value of common land have changed across the centuries, with profound consequences for the law, land management, the legal expression of concepts of common 'property' rights and their exercise. The 'stakeholders' of today are the inheritors of this complex cultural legacy, and must negotiate diverse and sometimes conflicting objectives in their pursuit of a potentially unifying goal: a secure and sustainable future for the commons. The book also has considerable contemporary relevance, providing a timely contribution to discussion of strategies for the implementation of the Commons Act of 2006. The case studies position the new legislation in England and Wales within the wider context of institutional scholarship on the governance principles for successful common pool resource management, and the rejection of the 'tragedy of the commons'.