All of the assigned readings are available online through the links in the syllabus, below.  In addition, most of the readings are available in two printed volumes, available (for $10 apiece) from Amazon through the following links:  Volume 1; Volume 2.

I. Origins of Rights to Land (3 classes)

• Johnson v. M’Intosh, 21 U.S. 543 (1823):
  • Historical Background (recorded lecture, 31 min.) (format options: Vimeo stream; Vimeo download; mp4)
  • The Supreme Court’s decision
• Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, chapter 5 (1689)
• Peter Schworm, “Boston, City of Savers,” Boston Globe, Jan. 19, 2019
• Harold Demsetz, Toward a Theory of Property Rights,” The American Economic Review 57 (1967): 347

II. Controlling Land Use (6 classes)

A. Introduction

• Wesley Hohfeld, “Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning,” 23 Yale L.J. 16 (1913), pages 28-59

B. Nuisance

• Middlesex Co. v. McCue, 149 Mass. 103 (1889)
• Arkansas Release Guidance Foundation v. Needler, 252 Ark. 194 (1972)
• Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co., 26 N.Y.2d 9 (1970)
• Spur Industries v. Del. E. Webb Development Co., 494 P.2d 700 (Ariz. 1972)

C. Light and Air

• Prah v. Maretti, 108 Wis. 223 (1982)
• Adrienne Rich, “Dreams Before Waking,” in Your Native Land, Your Life (1982)

D. Trespass

• Campbell v. Race, 7 Cush. 408 (Mass. 1851)
• Morris Cohen, “Property and Sovereignty,” 13 Cornell L.Q. 8, (1927), pages 11-14
• State v. Shack, 58 N.J. 297 (1971)
• Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

E. Zoning

• Lecture: Layers of Law
• Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty, 272 U.S. 365 (1926)
• Stoyanoff v. Berkeley, 458 S.W.2d 305 (1970)
• Robert Ellickson, “Zoning and the Cost of Housing: Evidence from Silicon Valley, Greater New Haven, and Greater Austin” (2020), pages 1-31, 87-97

III. Subdividing Rights (6 classes)

A. The Estate System

• Lecture: Freehold Estates and Future Interests
• Problem Set #1 (handout)
• Johnson v. Whiton, 159 Mass. 424 (1893)
• White v. Brown, 559 S.W.2d 938 (Tenn. 1977)
• Melms v. Pabst Brewing Co., 104 Wis. 7 (1899)
• Mahrenholz v. County Board of School Trustees, 93 Ill. App. 3d 366 (1981)

B. Concurrent Interests

• Lecture: The Common-Law System and Community Property
• Problem Set #2 (handout)
• Sawada v. Endo, 561 P.2d 1291 (Hawaii 1977)

C. Landlords and Tenants

• Lecture: Nonfreehold Estates
• Problem Set #3 (handout)
• Hilder v. St. Peter, 144 Vt. 150 (1984)
• Perspectives:
  • Letter from Judge Wright to Prof. Rabin (Oct. 14, 1982)
  • Kennedy, “The Effect of the Warranty of Habitability on Low Income Housing: `Milking’ and Class Violence,” 15 Fla. St. L. Rev. 485 (1987), pages 485-492, 496-501, 518-519
• The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. secs. 3601-3631 (1984)

D. Nonpossessory Interests

• Lecture: Easements, Covenants, and Equitable Servitudes
• Catalogue of Nonpossessory Interests
• Problem Set #4 (handout)
• Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948)

IV. Transferring Rights (6 classes)

A. Sales

• Carol Rose, “Crystals and Mud in Property Law,” 40 Stan. L. Rev. 577 (1988)

B. Gifts

• Gruen v. Gruen, 68 N.Y.2d 48 (1986)

C. Death

• Mass. General Laws, ch. 190B, article II (2012)
• Maria Cramer, “A Patriarch Leaves No Will, and the Home He Meant for His Cambridge Family May Be Lost,” Boston Globe, February 7, 2019
• “Pet Care: Where There’s a Will,” Boston Globe, Jan. 5, 2011

D. Adverse Possession

• Summit Veterinary Services v. Tindle (Court of Appeals of Iowa 2017)
• DeeDee Correll, “This land is now their land — so a judge rules,” LA Times, Dec. 3, 2007
• South Norwalk Lodge, No. 709, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks v. Palco Hats, 100 A.2d 735 (Ct. 1953)
• O’Keeffe v. Snyder, 83 N.J. 478 (1980)

V. Rights to Water (2 classes)

• Evans v. Merriweather, 4 Ill. 492 (1842)
• Coffin v. Left Hand Ditch Co., 6 Colo. 443 (1882)
• Ben Ryder Howe, “Wall Street Eyes Billions in the Colorado’s Water,” New York Times, January 3, 2021
• Jolls, Sunstein, and Thaler, A Behavioral Approach to Law and Economics, pp. 1471-1489

VI. Rights to Animals (2 classes)

• The Common Law
• Groundfish on Georges Bank
• Lobsters in Maine
• Salmon in Bristol Bay
• The Global Situation

VII. Rights to People (2 classes)

• Introduction
• State v. Mann, 13 N.C. 263 (1829)
  • Interpreting Mann
  • The Fate of Lydia
• Perspectives on Legal History

VIII. Rights to Information (4 classes)

A. Health Data

• Introduction
• Business Initiatives
• Law
  • United States
  • European Union
• Reform Proposals
  • Hall, Property, Privacy, and the Pursuit of Interconnected Electronic Medical Records
  • Evans, Much Ado About Data Ownership
  • “President Weighs in on Data from Genes”
  • Contreras, “The president says patients should own their genetic data. He’s wrong”
  • Oregon Senate Bill 703

B. Traditional Knowledge

• Introduction
• Case Studies
  • Quasia Amara
  • Mayan Weavers
  • Tibetan Rugs
• The Law
• Perspectives
  • Joseph Wekundah, Why Protect Traditional Knowledge
  • Waziyatawin, Indigenous Knowledge, Anti-Colonialism, and Empowerment
  • Stephen Munzer and Kal Raustiala, “The Uneasy Case for Intellectual Property Rights in Traditional Knowledge”
  • Donny Woolagoodja, Testimony before the Land and Environmental Court
• Reform Proposals
  • World Intellectual Property Organization, “Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property”
  • Fisher, “The Puzzle of Traditional Knowledge”
  • Okediji, “Closely Held’ Traditional Knowledge”

IX. Rights to Innovations (4 classes)

A. Fictional Characters

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. American Honda Motor Co., 900 F. Supp. 1287 (C.D. Cal. 1995)
• DC Comics v. Towle, 802 F.3d 1012 (9th Cir. 2015)
• Wendt v. Host Int’l, Inc., 125 F.3d 806 (CA9 1997)

B. Software

• Lecture: The History of Intellectual Property Protection for Software
• Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank (SCOTUS 2014)
• Oracle v. Google (SCOTUS 2021)