Loading...
Rescuing the Bundle-of-Rights Metaphor in Property Law
Baron, Jane B.
Baron, Jane B.
Citations
Altmetric:
Genre
Journal article
Date
2014
Advisor
Committee member
Group
Department
Permanent link to this record
Collections
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/6688
Abstract
For much of the twentieth century, legal academics conceptualized property as a bundle of rights. But property theory today is deeply divided between theorists who focus on property’s ends, i.e., its
reflection of values such as democracy or human flourishing, and those who focus on property’s means, i.e., its use of qualities such as modularity and exclusion to manage complexity in a cost-effective way. The bundle-of-rights conceptualization has been swept up into the controversy, becoming the particular target of means-focused theorists, who argue that the bundle conceptualization obscures critical features of the property system, most notably its use of strategies of exclusion, in rem rights, and indirectness. These theorists assert that, twentieth
century wisdom notwithstanding, property is not a bundle of rights but rather is a law of things. Contrary to these theorists, this Article argues that the bundle-of-rights conceptualization remains useful both descriptively and normatively. First, the bundle-of-rights conceptualization produces more precise specification of the legal relations of parties in both simple and complex
property arrangements. Second, it clarifies the normative choices that underlie decisions about property. Third, it focuses attention on the quality of the relationships that property constructs. Finally, bundle-ofrights analysis generally forces information forward. Because the information produced by the granular analysis of property bundles is useful, the bundle-of-rights metaphor should not be displaced or abandoned. Indeed, the complexity of contemporary property issues—and in particular their growing connection to the alternative legal fields of privacy and intellectual property—makes the bundle-of-rights conceptualization all the more fruitful.
Description
Citation
Jane B. Baron, Rescuing the Bundle-of-Rights Metaphor in Property Law, 82 U. Cin. L. Rev. (2014).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/uclr/vol82/iss1/2
Available at: https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/uclr/vol82/iss1/2
Citation to related work
University of Cincinnati College of Law
Has part
University of Cincinatti Law Review, Vol. 82, Iss. 1 (2014)
ADA compliance
For Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.edu