Property Posts

October 2021 Council Meeting Updates

At its meeting on October 21 and 22, 2021, the Council reviewed and discussed Council Drafts and approved drafts and portions of drafts.

The Property Law of Tokens

In this Article, we take a more sober look at the tokenization phenomenon and, in doing so, describe what exactly it means when it comes to property rights. What can a purchaser of a token expect? How is a token actually connected to the underlying asset, if at all? What does the law—not the hype—have to say about it?

Property Torts and the Restatements

This essay examines connections between tort law and property, and the Restatements’ treatment of tort liability for loss of, damage to, or interference with property interests.

Who Needs Adverse Possession?

Adverse possession is one of property law’s most central doctrines. Yet, this Article contends, the need it answers has been largely misunderstood.

Restating the Law of Prescriptive Easements

For many years, leading treatise writers have advised that if a prescriptive easement claimant establishes that otherwise unexplained use of another’s land has occurred in an open and notorious manner and continued without interruption for the statutory prescription period, the claimant’s use is presumed to have been adverse to the owner. The same leading authorities acknowledge that a minority of courts employ the opposite presumption—that otherwise unexplained use is presumed to be permissive.

Trespass to Land and Intent

The following entry is excerpted from Tentative Draft No. 2 for Restatement of the Law Fourth, Property. Included below is the Topic Note to Trespass to Land, Generally; § 1.5. Intent Required for Trespass to Land, and Comment b. to § 1.5.

Property Torts

In this video, Henry E. Smith and John C.P. Goldberg discuss the connection property torts has to both Restatements of Torts and Property. 

Turning Neighbors into Nuisances

This Article uses a forgotten period in urban development to illustrate the critical interactions among forms of private and public law in identifying the proper subjects of land use control.