Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Adverse Possession, Private-Zoning Waiver & Desuetude: Abandonment & Recapture Of Property And Liberty Interests, 44 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 557 (2011), Scott Andrew Shepard

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Adverse-possession doctrine labors under a pair of disabilities: a hesitancy by theorists to embrace the abandonment-and-recapture principle that informs the doctrine, and a substantial unwillingness of governments to abandon an antiquated and outmoded maxim shielding them from the doctrine's important work. Removing these disabilities will allow a series of positive outcomes. First, it will demonstrate that all would-be adverse possessors, not just those acting "in good faith" or with possessory intent, should enjoy the fruits of the doctrine. Second, it will provide valuable additional means by which the public may monitor the performance of government employees, and additional discipline to …

Consumer Protection Initiatives In The Eu Mortgage Market: A Behavioral Economics Based Critique And Proposal, 25 Temp. Int'l & Comp. L.J. 1 (2011), Debra Pogrund Stark, Jessica M. Choplin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Psychological Investigation Of Consumer Vulnerability To Fraud: Legal And Policy Implication, 35 Law & Psychol. Rev. 61 (2011), Jessica M. Choplin, Debra Pogrund Stark, Jasmine N. Ahmad

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A New Experiment On Rational Behavior, Myles R. Macdonald

CMC Senior Theses

Behavioral economics is widely recognized as a rising field in economics, one whose discoveries and implications are not yet completed or understood. At the same time, economic theory plays an enormous role in our governmental and legal system. In particular, the Coase Theorem and its implications have affected nearly every area in the field of law and economics. This paper proposes a experimental test of Coasean bargaining in situations using two competitive players whose payoffs depend on minimizing their costs of mitigating the externality. A rational player’s action can be predicted ahead of time, and the rationality of the game’s …

Can Public Nuisance Law Protect Your Neighborhood From Big Banks?, Kermit J. Lind

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article considers how the law of public nuisance might be applied to protect neighborhoods from the destructive forces of the mortgage crisis. For more than thirty years I have been a close observer and a participant in community development at the neighborhood level in Cleveland, Ohio. I now supervise a law school clinical practice that provides legal counsel to an array of nonprofit community development corporations that, for more than thirty-five years, have been renewing housing and neighborhood sustainability in a city going through major social and economic change.

An Evolving Foreclosure Landscape: The Ibanez Case And Beyond, Peter R. Pitegoff, Laura S. Underkuffler

Faculty Publications

Mortgage securitization, subprime lending, a persistently weak housing market, and an explosion of residential mortgage defaults – today’s homeowners and banks face a new and challenging landscape. Recently, courts in several states have issued decisions that alter the terrain for mortgage foreclosures. In Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, among other states, courts have dismissed foreclosure actions on the basis of what might seem to be highly technical deficiencies in the pleading or proof. The most well-known–and controversial–in this cluster of cases is U.S. Bank National Ass’n v. Ibanez, decided by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts this year. In …

Pro-Gun Property Regulation: How The State Of Oklahoma Controls The Property Rights Of Employers Through Firearm Legislation, J. Blake Patton

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Oklahoma Landlords Beware: Miller V. David Grace, Inc. Abandons Caveat Emptor In Residential Leases, Jamie M. Powers

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Yellow Light For “Green Zoning”: Some Words Of Caution About Incorporating Green Building Standards Into Local Land Use Law, Michael Allan Wolf

UF Law Faculty Publications

The focus of this essay is a growing practice to which we can attach the label “Green Zoning” — the incorporation of LEED and competing privately generated standards into local government law, as part of the existing zoning or land use ordinance, or as a free-standing green building ordinance. After reviewing some of the pertinent literature on this topic, this essay will highlight and provide illustrations of six problems with Green Zoning practices: 1. The Delegation Problem — Can and should local laws be based on a moving target (standards set by private parties that continue to change and evolve)? …

Property Law - The Recreational Navigation Doctrine - The Use Of The Recreational Navigation Doctrine To Increase Public Access To Waterways And Its Effect On Riparian Owners, Clinton Lancaster

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Images Of Force: The Power Of Maps In Community Development, Jill M. Fraley

Scholarly Articles

Recent trends in critical geography have drawn attention to the secret political lives of maps. Beneath a veneer of abstraction and scientific neutrality, maps are deeply political devices, embedding within them perspectives on what is important in a community, what are assets and what are liabilities, what is central and what is marginal. By drawing on the historical example of the mapping work of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the United States, this article examines the power of maps in community development, land use planning and natural resource allocation. This examination yields a lesson in the significance of the maps …

Towards A Convention For The International Sale Of Real Property: Challenges, Commonalities, And Possibilities, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

In a world that is increasingly global in scope, society has come to view the ever-growing body of international commercial laws as being exceptionally important. This is evidenced through the adoption of several high profile pieces of legislation over the past several decades: International Interest in Mobile Equipment - Study LXXI, the EU’s Draft Common Frame of Reference, the EU Directives on Consumer Protection, and, most noteworthy of all, the Convention for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

As raised by Professors Sprankling, Coletta, and Mirow, what has been conspicuously absent from this growing body of laws is an international …

Property Rights In Land, Agricultural Capitalism, And The Relative Decline Of Pre-Industrial China, Taisu Zhang

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Solar Rights For Texas Property Owners, Sara Bronin

Faculty Articles and Papers

In response to Jamie France's note, "A Proposed Solar Access Law for the State of Texas," Professor Bronin urges future commentators to focus on three additional areas of inquiry related to proposed solar rights regimes. Bronin argues that such proposals would be strengthened by discussion of potential legal challenges to the proposals, related political issues, and renewable energy microgrids.Ms. France’s proposal for the State of Texas includes the elimination of preexisting private property restrictions that negatively affect solar access. Bronin argues that this proposal would be strengthened by a discussion of potential challenges under federal and state takings clauses. Additionally, …

Property In Law: Government Rights In Legal Innovations, Stephen Clowney

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

One of the most enduring themes in American political thought is that competition between states encourages legal innovation. Despite the prominence of this story in the national ideology, there is growing anxiety that state and local governments innovate at a socially suboptimal rate. Academics have recently expressed alarm that the pace of legal experimentation has become "extraordinarily slow," "inefficient," and "less than ideal." Ordinary citizens, too, seem concerned that government has been leeched of imagination and the dynamic spirit of experimentation; both talk radio programs and newspapers remain jammed with complaints about legislative gridlock and do-nothing politicians who cannot, or …

The World Of Deadwood: Property Rights And The Search For Human Identity, Michael B. Kent Jr.

Scholarly Works

The year is 1876. Gold has been discovered in the fledgling camp of Deadwood, bringing hordes of new arrivals each day seeking to strike it rich. The allure of wealth is coupled with the allure of complete autonomy. There is no law. Although part of the United States, Deadwood is unaffiliated with any existing territorial government. It is free. Or is it? From this backdrop, HBO’s highly-acclaimed drama Deadwood springs forth. Series creator David Milch is frank about his mission behind the story: to explore how order arises from chaos. The assignment and protection of property rights play central roles …

The Due Process Rights Of Residential Tenants In Mortgage Foreclosure Cases., Henry Rose

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Legal History Of Federally Granted Railroad Rights-Of-Way And The Myth Of Congress's "1871 Shift", Darwin P. Roberts

University of Colorado Law Review

Beginning in the 1830s, the United States government granted railroads thousands of miles of rights-of-way across the public lands. In 1850, Congress began to further subsidize the construction of certain railroads by granting them title to millions of acres of the public lands. By the late 1860s, however, the public came to vehemently oppose giving vast tracts of the public domain away to railroads. As a consequence, in 1871, Congress ceased granting subsidy lands to railroads. Federal grants of railroad rights-of-way, though, continued well into the twentieth century. The Supreme Court has held that the year 1871 marked a transition …

Sifting Through The Wreckage: An Analysis And Proposed Resolution Concerning The Disposition Of Historic Shipwrecks Located In International Waters, Jeremy Neil

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Procuring Meaningful Land Rights For The Women Of Rwanda, Aparna Polavarapu

Scholarly Works

Land reform and gender equality are important development issues in post-Genocide Rwanda. Beginning in 1999, the government of Rwanda passed and implemented reforms which granted women rights to own and use land on an equal status with men. However, as is expected with widespread social reform, obstacles continue to inhibit widespread gender equality in practice. In Rwanda, major social obstacles manifest in the form of (1) resistance to allowing daughters to inherit land from their parents, (2) adherence to assumptions of female inferiority, and (3) the persistence of informal marriages, in which wives remain unprotected by the new laws. Interested …