Ellickson on Carol Rose and Universally Recognized Signals of Property Claims

Robert C. Ellickson (Yale) has posted The Inevitable Trend Toward Universally Recognized Signals of Property Claims: An Essay for Carol Rose, forthcoming in the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, Vol. 19, March 2011.  The essay was prepared for the 2010 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference honoring Professor Rose.  The abstract:

Carol Rose has identified the study of the communication of property claims as her central scholarly project. In this tribute to her distinguished career, I discuss whether a method of communicating a property claim - for example, the building of a fence around cultivated land - tends to be universal or to vary from one interpretative community to another. On account of increasing urbanization and long-distance travel, a property claimant in a given cultural setting must anticipate that some passersby will be total strangers. I contend that this reality prompts claimants to favor furnishing nonverbal visual cues, such as fences, that people of all backgrounds should be able to recognize.

Matt Festa