Property Fall Course Time and Location. Reading Materials. Grading. Assignments

Transcription

1 Property Fall 2013 Ilya Somin Professor of Law George Mason University School of Law Office: Rm. 322 Ph: Office Hours: Monday 4-6 PM, or by appointment. Course Time and Location Monday and Wednesday, 2:00-3:50 PM Room 120 Reading Materials Textbooks: Jesse Dukeminier, Mark Krier, Gregory Alexander, & Michael Schill, Property, (Aspen, 2010), 7th ed. (listed as DK in syllabus); Robert Ellickson, Carol Rose, and Bruce Ackerman, Perspectives on Property Law, (Aspen 2002), 3d ed. (listed as ERA ). Available at GMU Book Store. Several items on the reading list are available on TWEN, under the Course Materials heading. Some can also be downloaded on Westlaw and Lexis, if you prefer. Grading Grades will be based on a combination of the final exam and class participation. Specifically, the course grade will be the final exam grade plus a bonus for good class participation worth up to as much as about one half of a letter grade on your final grade for the semester. The final exam will consist of essay questions and short identification questions. Further details of the final exam will be announced later in the semester. Class participation will be assessed on a combination of quantity and quality. Further details on class participation and final exam grading will be provided during the course of the semester. Assignments Although I will try to stick to the schedule, we may occasionally fall behind. In such an unfortunate event, we will begin the next class with the next case or other reading on the syllabus, unless I say otherwise. 1

2 August 19: Introduction to Property Richard Posner, The Economic Theory of Property Rights, ERA Margaret Jane Radin, Property and Personhood, ERA 8-20 Harold Demsetz, Toward a Theory of Property Rights DK August 21: Acquisition by Conquest and Capture Johnson v. M Intosh DK 3-18 Pierson v. Post DK Ghen v. Rich DK Keeble v. Hickeringill DK August 26: Acquisition by Creation/Tragedy of the Commons International News Service v. AP DK Cheney Bros. v. Doris Silk Corp. DK Garrett Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons, ERA Michael Heller & Rebecca Eisenberg, Can Patents Deter Innovation? The Anticommons in Biomedical Research, ERA August 28: Acquisition by Find Armory v. Delamirie DK Hannah v. Peel DK McAvoy v. Medina DK Notes: Popov v. Hayashi, 2002 WL (Cal. Superior Court 2002) (Westlaw/TWEN). September 4: Acquisition by Adverse Possession/Acquisition by Gift Background on Adverse Possession DK Mannillo v. Gorski DK Howard v. Kunto DK Newman v. Bost DK Gruen v. Gruen DK September 9: The Right to Exclude/Theory of Property Rules Jacque v. Steenberg Homes DK State v. Shack DK (including notes) Guido Calabresi & A. Douglas Melamed, Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Inalienability Rules: One View of the Cathedral, ERA

3 September 11: Property Rights in the Body and Inalienability Rules Moore v. Regents of the Univ. of California DK Richard Epstein, Altruism and Valuable Consideration in Organ Transplantation, (Handout/TWEN). Leon Kass, Organs for Sale? Propriety, Property, and the Price of Progress. (Handout/TWEN) September 16: Estates and Fee Simple/Coase Theorem R.H. Coase, The Problem of Social Cost, ERA Robert Ellickson, Order Without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes. ERA History and origins of estates DK White v. Brown DK September 18: Life Estates and Defeasible Estates Baker v. Weedon DK Defeasible Estates DK Mahrenholtz v. Cty. Bd. of School Trustees DK September 23: Future Interests and Trusts/ Concurrent Interests I Future Interests DK Rule Against Perpetuities and its Reform DK , Trusts DK Jesse Dukeminier & Mark Krier, The Rise of the Perpetual Trust DK NOTE: The traditional rule against perpetuities will NOT be on the final exam. Background to concurrent interests DK September 25: Concurrent Interests II Riddle v. Harmon DK Delfino v. Vealencis DK Spiller v. Mackereth DK Swartzbaugh v. Sampson DK September 30: Landlord-Tenant Law I - Estates and Delivery of Possession Types of Leasehold Estates DK The Lease DK Garner v. Gerrish DK Hannan v. Dush DK

4 October 2: Landlord-Tenant Law II - Discrimination and sublet/assignment Fair Housing legislation DK Ernst v. Conditt DK Kendall v. Ernest Pestana, Inc. DK October 7: Landlord-Tenant Law III - Landlord Remedies and Tenants Rights Berg v. Wiley DK Sommer v. Kridel DK Landlord Remedies DK , October 9: Tenant Rights/Statute of Frauds Hilder v. St. Peter DK Richard Posner, Minimum Housing Standards, ERA Bruce Ackerman, Regulating Slum Housing Markets on Behalf of the Poor ERA Land Transactions DK The Statute of Frauds DK October 15 (Tuesday observing Monday schedule): The Contract of Sale Hickey v. Green DK Lohmeyer v. Bower DK Stambovsky v. Ackley DK Lempke v. Dagenais DK October 16: The Deed The Deed DK Brown v. Lober DK Frimberger v. Anzelloti DK Sweeney, Admin. v. Sweeney DK October 21: Mortgages Introduction to Mortgages DK Murphy v. Financial Development Corp. DK Bean v. Walker DK The Mortgage Crisis and the Great Recession, Excerpt from Dukeminier, Krier, Alexander, & Schill, Property (8th Ed., forthcoming), ch. 7 (TWEN) John H. Makin, A Government Failure, Not a Market Failure, Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2009, available at John Atlas and Peter Dreier, The Conservative Origins of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, American Prospect, Dec. 18, 2007, available at 4

5 e_crisis October 23: Recording Systems/Easements I Introduction to Recording DK Types of Recording Acts DK Bd. of Education v. Hughes DK Guillette v. Daly Dry Wall DK Historical Background of Easements DK October 28: Easements II Willard v. First Church of Christ, Scientist DK Licenses DK 773 Holbrook v. Taylor DK Van Sandt v. Royster DK Othen v. Rosier DK Brown v. Voss DK October 30: Real Covenants and Servitudes Covenants Running with the Land DK Tulk v. Moxhay DK Sanborn v. McLean DK Neponsit Property Owners Association v. Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank DK Shelley v. Kraemer DK November 4: Common Interest Communities Common Interest Communities DK Richard Epstein, Of Covenants and Constitutions, ERA Nahrstedt v. Lakeside Village Condominium DK Mulligan v. Panther Valley Property Owners Assn. DK November 6: Land Use Controls History of zoning DK Euclid v. Amber Realty DK Structure of zoning laws DK Northwestern Distributors, Inc. v. Zoning Hearing Bd. DK November 11: Flexibility in Zoning/Exclusionary Zoning Variances and Special Exceptions DK Commons v. Westwood Zoning Bd. DK

6 Cope v. Town of Brunswick DK Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Township of Mt. Laurel DK Additional Material on Mt. Laurel and Exclusionary Zoning, Excerpt from Dukeminier, Krier, Alexander, & Schill, Property (8th Ed., forthcoming), ch. 11 (TWEN) November 13: Takings I - Public Use. Intro to Takings DK City of Oakland v. Oakland Raiders, 646 P.2d 835 (Cal. 1982) (TWEN) Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26 (1954) (TWEN). Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff 467 U.S. 229 (1984) (TWEN) November 18: Takings I - Public Use (Continued) Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) (TWEN) (NOTE: Do not read the version in DK instead, which omits some important opinions) Discussion of Kelo and its Aftermath DK City of Norwood v. Horney, 853 N.E.2d 1115 (Ohio 2006) (read only). Goldstein v. N.Y. State Urban Dev. Corp., 921 N.E.2d 164 (N.Y. 2009) November 20: Takings II: What is a Taking?/ Discussion of Final Exam. Physical Occupations and Regulatory Takings DK Loretto v. Teleprompter DK Pennsylvania Coal v. Mahon DK Frank Michelman, Property, Utility, and Fairness: Comments on the Ethical Foundations of Just Compensation Law, ERA November 21 (Thursday observing Monday schedule): Takings II/Conclusion End of Class. Penn Central Transp. Co. v. City of New York DK Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council DK Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency DK Remedies for Takings Violations DK