Landmark Cases in Property Law explores the development of basic principles of property law in leading cases. Each chapter considers a case on land, personal property or intangibles, discussing what that case contributes to the dominant themes of property jurisprudence – How are property rights acquired? What is the content of property rights? What are the limits or boundaries of property? How are property rights extinguished? Individually and collectively, the chapters identify a number of important themes for the doctrinal development of property institutions and their broader justification. These themes include: the obscure and incremental development of seemingly foundational principles, the role of instrumentalism in property reasoning, the influence of the law of tort on the scope of property doctrines, and the impact of Roman legal reasoning on the common law of property. One or more of these themes (and others) is revealed through careful case analysis in each chapter, and they are collected and critically explored in the editors' introductions. This makes for a coherent and provocative collection, and ensures that Landmark Cases in Property Law will be lively and essential reading for scholars, practitioners, and all those interested in the development of property principles at law.

This is a book dedicated to the significance and legacy of landmark cases in the field of intellectual property. Eleven well-known scholars offer in-depth commentary and analysis of cases that have made an impact on legal theory or critical thinking about the scope and purpose of the protection of intellectual and industrial creativity. All the cases covered have proven useful in developing doctrine, even though subsequent developments have made some appear and‘misleadingand’ rather than and‘leadingand’, and for some recent cases it is too early to say whether their approach will become mainstream. Among the fundamental questions and– all profoundly interesting, and to which no definite answers have yet been found and– arising in the course of the analysis are the following: and• Who should be master over the reputation, esteem and legacy of authors and their works and– authors and their heirs, or subsequent copyright owners? and• What, if any, protection should be granted to achievements in the absence of confusion? and• Should prevention of unfair competition allow one to and‘reap what one has not sownand’? and• Should we protect commercial investment beyond the scope of defined intellectual property rights? and• Should it be considered a tort to use a well-known mark in a way that may dilute its repute and distinctive character? and• What kinds of monopolies should be protected, if any? and• Does the patent system in its current form allow us to question the assumption that technological progress is good per se, and that novel and inventive solutions should thus be protected? and• Should extraneous considerations such as public good and social usefulness be considered at the stages of grant and enforcement of patent rights? and• Should we grant patents over living organisms whose workings and reproduction are a long way from being completely understood? and• Should the rules developed for the enforcement of property rights limit a patenteeand’s remedies to appropriate damages, thereby effectively granting a compulsory licence? The book concludes with an analysis of two case clusters remarkable for the worldwide dimension of the dispute. The authors show how litigation over Lego in about 30 jurisdictions and Budweiser in over 40 jurisdictions has enriched doctrine on such issues as contract, trade marks, trade names, geographical indications, property rights in general, human rights, and various international and bilateral treaties, all as they impinge on the protection of intellectual property rights. For scholars in the field, as well as for lawyers seeking a rich vein of doctrine to buttress a case, this unusual book will be of incomparable value. As a masterful clarification of salient doctrine, it represents a major contribution to the legal theory underpinning intellectual property law.

This volume explores the nature of intellectual property law by looking at particular disputes. All the cases gathered here aim to show the versatile and unstable character of a discipline still searching for landmarks. Each contribution offers an opportunity to raise questions about the narratives that have shaped the discipline throughout its short but profound history. The volume begins by revisiting patent litigation to consider the impact of the Statute of Monopolies (1624). It continues looking at different controversies to describe how the existence of an author's right in literary property was a plausible basis for legal argument, even though no statute expressly mentioned authors' rights before the Statute of Anne (1710). The collection also explores different moments of historical significance for intellectual property law: the first trade mark injunctions; the difficulties the law faced when protecting maps; and the origins of originality in copyright law. Similarly, it considers the different ways of interpreting patent claims in the late nineteenth and twentieth century; the impact of seminal cases on passing off and the law of confidentiality; and more generally, the construction of intellectual property law and its branches in their interaction with new technologies and marketing developments. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the development of intellectual property law.

Landmark Cases in Land Law is the sixth volume in the Landmark Cases series of collected essays on leading cases (previous volumes in the series having covered Restitution, Contract, Tort, Equity and Family Law). The eleven cases in this volume cover the period 1834 to 2011, although, interestingly, no fewer than six of the cases were decided or reported in the 1980s. The names of the selected cases will be familiar to property lawyers. However, individually, the essays provide a reappraisal of the cases from a wide range of perspectives - focusing on their historical, social or theoretical context, highlighting previously neglected aspects and even questioning their perceived importance. Collectively, the essays explore several common themes that pervade the law of property – the numerus clausus principle, the conclusiveness of registration, the desirability of certainty in the law and the central question of the enforceability of interests through changes in ownership of land. This volume provides a collection of essays that will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners.

Landmark Cases in Equity continues the series of essay collections which began with Landmark Cases in the Law of Restitution (2006) and continued with Landmark Cases in the Law of Contract (2008) and Landmark Cases in the Law of Tort (2010). It contains essays on landmark cases in the development of equitable doctrine running from the seventeenth century to recent times. The range, breadth and social importance of equitable principles, as these affect commercial, domestic and even political matters are well known. By focusing on the historical development of these principles, the essays in this collection help us to understand them more clearly, and also provide insights into the processes of legal change through judicial innovation. Themes addressed in the essays include the nature of the courts' equitable jurisdiction, the development of property rights in equity, constraints on the powers of settlors to create express trusts, the duties of trustees and other fiduciaries, remedies for breach of these duties, and the evolution of constructive and resulting trusts.

Landmark Cases in Defamation Law is a diverse and engaging edited collection that brings together eminent scholars from the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to analyse cases of enduring significance to defamation law. The cases selected have all had a significant impact on defamation law, not only in the jurisdiction in which they were decided but internationally. Given the formative influence of English defamation law in the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, the focus is predominantly on English cases, although decisions of the United States and Australia are also included in the collection. The authors all naturally share a common interest in defamation law but bring different expertise and emphasis to their respective chapters. Among the authors are specialists in tort law, legal history and internet law. The cases selected cover all aspects of defamation law, including defamatory capacity and meaning; practice and procedure; defences; and remedies.

In the depths of the Great Depression, when foreclosure rates skyrocketed across the United States, more than two dozen states passed mortgage-extension or -adjustment laws to help farmers and homeowners keep their properties. One such statute in Minnesota led to the most important property law case of its time and still casts a long shadow upon constitutional debates and our own era's severe economic downturn. Fighting Foreclosure marks the first book-length study of the landmark 1934 Supreme Court decision in Home Building and Loan Association v. Blaisdell, which, by a 5-4 vote, upheld the Minnesota Mortgage Moratorium Act. On the one hand, Blaisdell validated efforts by states to offer legislative relief to citizens struggling to keep their farms and homes. On the other, it caused an outcry among banking interests and conservative legal theorists, who argued that these laws violated the Contract Clause of the Constitution and interfered with our free market system. In his majority opinion, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes argued that the reasonable and limited nature of the law and the unusual severity of the emergency it addressed placed it firmly within the "police powers" of the states to protect the health and safety of the people. In a strongly worded dissent, Justice George Sutherland argued for a consistent and strict interpretation of the Contract Clause regardless of economic exigency. John Fliter and Derek Hoff provide a concise history and analysis of not only this landmark case and the reasoning behind its sharply divided decision but also of the entire history of the Contract Clause. They trace closely the agricultural crisis, political pressures, and farmer-protest movement that produced the Minnesota law. And their study contributes to scholarly debate about the origins of the Constitutional Revolution of 1937, by which the Supreme Court accepted the New Deal, as well as to public debates about constitutional interpretation and the role that government should play in providing relief to distressed citizens. In the midst of our nation's ongoing suffering from massive foreclosures and bankruptcies, Fighting Foreclosure also offers a potent reminder that the High Court's decisions often revolve around lives at risk as much as abstract legal debates.