The Public Nature of Private Property

While Blackstone may famously have described private property as "that sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world," the truth is that the public has a significant interest not only in regulating the use of private property, but also in defining it and establishing its contours, according to Malloy (Syracuse U. College of Law) and Diamond (Georgetown U. Law Center), who present nine papers exploring the public nature of private property. The papers discuss such topics as the way law's treatment of private property has evolved over time, the reason for the disconnect between the actual law of private property and the general public's perception of property absolutism, the cultural construction of property and ownership, the relationship between crisis and substantive change in property law, the nature of property rights in the right to respect for one's home under English law, accessibility standards for the benefit of those with mobility impairments as a proper attenuation of housing property rights, and the link between preserving the public peace and the public's obligations to protect private property. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Robin Paul Malloy is E.I. White Chair and Distinguished Professor of Law at Syracuse University, and editor of Ashgate's Law, Property and Society series. Michael Diamond is Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and author of Corporations: A Contemporary Approach (Carolina Academic Press, 2008).