PropertyProf Blog

Property Prof as Graduate Student

I'm guesting this month over at PrawfsBlawg.  As some readers know, for the past two years I've been doing graduate work in philosophy at the University of Maryland.  I just put up a post at Prawfs that talks about doing graduate work while being a law professor.

Ben Barros

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Guest Blogger: Juliet Moringiello

I'm delighted that my colleague Juliet Moringiello will be joining us for a guest stint.  Juliet is a cyberlaw and commercial law expert who also teaches property.  Among other things, she will be blogging about virtual property and approaching property from a commercial law perspective.

Welcome, Juliet!

Ben Barros

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I'm Back

Sorry for the lack of posting in the last week.  I had the flu for one part of the week, and was on the road for the other.  Not a good combo.

Ben Barros

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Guest Blogger Josh Tate

We're delighted that Josh Tate (SMU) will be joining us for a guest stint here at PropertyProf.  Josh is a legal historian who writes and teaches about property and wills & trusts.  His dissertation, which is in progress, focuses on property rights and remedies in medieval England.  His many articles include  Ownership and Possession in the Early Common Law, forthcoming from the Am. J. Legal Hist.  Josh is also up on current legal events, and among other things will be discussing Leona Helmsley's will.

Welcome Josh!

Ben Barros

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Brophy, New Media Rock Star

Al is featured in this week's Law Talk, a podcast series being done by Nate Oman.  Al discusses issues related to universities with links to slavery.  Check it out!

Ben Barros

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Another Milestone: 100,000 Visitors

Well, we've passed another milestone:  100,000 visitors.  Thanks for visiting; and we're all looking forward to much more talk of property scholarship, cases, and teaching methods.

Your friends and colleagues at propertyprof.

The image is of an eighteenth century milestone from around Boston, from the University of Michigan's fabulous exhibit on Colonial America in photography.

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New Permablogger

As you can see from the masthead to the left, Rose Cuison Villazor has joined us as a contributing editor.  Welcome Rose!

Ben Barros

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On the Road

I'm off to Cape Cod for vacation next week, then will be in Berlin for Law and Society the week after that.  I'm not sure what my internet access will be, so blogging from me might be light for a bit.  I hope to be able to post, though, especially from Berlin.

Ben Barros

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Guest Blogger: Rose Villazor

I'm delighted that Rose Villazor (SMU) will be visiting with us here at PropertyProf.  Rose is working on two very interesting articles, both of which will be presented at Law and Society in Berlin:  "Blood Quantum Laws: Racial Discrimination or Act of Self-Determination?" (forthcoming Cal. L. Rev. 2008) and "Deconstructing Local Anti-Undocumented Immigrant Property Ordinances."

Welcome Rose!

Ben Barros

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Possibility of Light Blogging For Rest of Week

I'll be on the road for the rest of the week, and though I'll have my laptop with me, I might not have much of a chance to post for the next few days.  Like Al, I've been under water for much of the last semester.  Hope to have time to do more original substantive posting than I've been doing lately when I get back.

Ben Barros

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Lindsay Robertson Guest Blogging

It is my great pleasure to introduce Lindsay G. Robertson, of the University of Oklahoma, who'll be guest blogging with us for a while.

Lindsay's the author of an important volume on Johnson v. McIntosh, Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands, published by Oxford University Press in 2005.  You may recall our discussion of it last year, in our talk about "Which Case Should Be First."  Now that it's out in paperback I think that your students would enjoy reading it in tandem with Johnson. 

Lindsay teaches and writes in Native American law and property, as well as legal history, and is working as a consultant to the state department on rights of indigenous peoples.  He holds a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and is a member of the storied Virginia Law School class of 1986, which produced property and wills profs William Brewbaker and Barry Cushman.

I'm particularly looking forward to his thoughts on Johnson. And I hope he'll talk a little about including Native American law into the property curriculum.

Al Brophy
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More on Al Brophy, Rock Star

Brophy groupies will want to check out the recent comment to our earlier Al Brophy, Rock Star post, by one of Al's former students at Hawaii, featuring a list of Brophy's greatest hits.

Ben Barros

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Guest Blogger: Nestor Davidson

I'm delighted that Nestor Davidson, who teaches at the University of Colorado law school, will be joining us for a guest blogging stint.  Nestor clerked for Judge David S. Tatel on the D.C. circuit and for Justice Souter on the Supreme Court, then worked at HUD and at Latham & Watkins as a real-estate lawyer.  His recent publications include The Problem of Equality in Takings, 102 Nw. U. L. Rev. (forthcoming) (2008); Cooperative Localism: Federal-Local Collaboration in an Era of State Sovereignty, 93 Va. L. Rev. (forthcoming) (2007); and Relational Contracts in the Privatization of Social Welfare: The Case of Housing, 24 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 263 (2006).  I hope he'll talk about his scholarship while he's with us.

Welcome!

Ben Barros

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My Desk

For your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of my desk:

Note the bright yellow-green document in the middle -- one of my students was smart enough to place the colored sheet on the top of her student note so it wouldn't get lost in the pile.  In my humble opinion, a clean desk is a sign that you don't have enough to do.

Ben Barros

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Al Brophy, Rock Star

It's another snow day in Harrisburg, so I thought I'd mention something that I've been meaning to discuss since the AALS conference.  I'm concerned that people might get a misleading impression of Al from his official picture:

Looking at this image, you'd think that Al is a slightly preppy legal history geek (and I mean that in the best way).  Green sweater, photo in front of computer, cup full of sharpened pencils.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Think laconic legal-history rock star, maybe early Bob Geldoff.  All he needed was a clove cigarette and he would have been so hip that they wouldn't have even let him into the AALS conference.  Seriously.

Ben Barros

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What'cha lookin' at?

That's a question we used to ask when I was growing up. 

I'm blogging a lot less these days, slouching towards an extended bloggatical, as I'm finding teaching and writing ever more time consuming.  Hence the non-substantive nature of this post.  But it's super bowl Sunday, so perhaps we can be excused.  And perhaps I shall someday return to talking about recent scholarship I've enjoyed.

Did you know that you can check out sitemeter to see what drives traffic here?  That's an entertaining (sort of) pastime; well, ok, it doesn't compare to some parlor games we play in Tuscaloosa, nor to listening to the Ann Coulter Talking Doll.  I saw recently that someone arrived at propertyprof with this google search "alabama song of the south" meaning--and that led to this post on conservative songs related to property.  It's one of my favorite posts.  At the end of it I mentioned that two other songs that deserve some extended commentary are Alabama's Song of the South and the Five Man Electrical Band's Signs.  Had completely forgotten about this, but I thought that a couple of lines from Song of the South might be in order.

Well somebody told us wall street fell
But we were so poor that we couldn't tell.
Cotton was short and the weeds were tall
But Mr. Roosevelt's a gonna save us all.

Well momma got sick and daddy got down.
The county got the farm and they moved to town.
Pappa got a job with the TVA
He bought a washing machine and then a Chevrolet.

Fred Wright employed that as an epigram for his Alabama Law Review Note on mortgage foreclosures during the New Deal.  Check it out. 

Perhaps another day we'll talk a little about "Signs." ....

Couple of side notes here.  How do you like the walking eyeball, from Emerson's journal, describing the eyeball that sees everything?  That reminds me, I need to talk about Emerson's property lawsuit sometime. 

Brophy

Are blogs naughty or nice?

Eugene Volokh says it depends.

Rick Duncan

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See You in DC?

I'll be blogging a little bit over the next week, but with the holidays coming up thinks will be a little light.  Al and I will both be at the AALS conference in DC.  If you're going to be there, please say hello.  I'll be at the property-related panels.  I'll also be at the Blawgers' Ball at Cloud on Wed. night.  For ease of identification, here are some photos:

Barros:

 

Brophy:

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Another Milestone: 50,000 Visits

Just passed this afternoon another milestone here--our 50,000th visit.  And looking forward to many more returns.

I thought I'd take the opportunity here to post a little bit on a more recent monument: the new Dallas football stadium.  Marc Roark sent along this link about the stadium.  I don't know much about football stadiums, though I should note that one of our nation's largest sits about a mile from my office.  Marc thought there's the possibility of some comment on the video and the boast that the stadium will be one of our planet's most recongizeable landmarks (or some similarly grand statement).  Thanks to our readers--and particularly to our content providers, Ben, Carl Christensen, Rick Duncan, Rachel Godsil, Calvin Massey, Jim Smith, and Eduardo Penalver.

The milestone from Wales is courtesy of our friends at wikipedia.

Al Brophy

50,000

A few minutes ago, we had our 50,000th visit to PropertyProf.  I was hoping that it would be someone from Indonesia or someplace similar, but near as I can tell, it was Brophy or someone else from U. of Alabama.  Anyway, thanks for visiting!

Ben Barros

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Two Visitors: Jim Smith and Eduardo Penalver

I'm delighted that Jim Smith (University of Georgia) and Eduardo Peñalver (Cornell) will be joining us as guest bloggers in the coming weeks.

Jim holds the John Byrd Martin Chair of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law.  He is the author of numerous articles and has written casebooks and treatises on Property, Real Estate Transactions, Real Estate Taxation, and the law of neighbors. 

Eduardo joined the faculty at Cornell Law School this year after stints at Fordham Law School and Yale Law School, where he visited last year.  Among his recent articles are Property as Entrance (in the Virginia Law Review) and Regulatory Taxings (in the Columbia Law Review).

Welcome!

Ben Barros

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Welcome Back, Rick

As noted in the post immediately below, Rick Duncan will be posting regularly here on (among other things) religious land use issues.  We're delighted to have him back after his great visit of a few weeks ago.

Ben Barros

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Thanks to Rick . . .

for a great guest stint!  I've learned a great deal about RLUIPA and plan on incorporating it into my land-use unit in the Spring.  Although I'm sympathetic about some of the problems that religious institutions have in dealing with local land-use ordinances, I have to say I have some doubts about the statute, especially its strict scrutiny standard.  There is no question, though, that this is an important statute, and it will be interesting to see how RLUIPA develops in the courts over the next few years.

Ben Barros

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Guest Blogger Rick Duncan

I'm delighted that Rick Duncan will be joining us as a guestblogger.  He's the Sherman S. Welpton, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law.  He is a graduate of the Cornell Law School and served as an editor of the Cornell Law Review.  He teaches Property and Constitutional Law with a special emphasis on the law of religious freedom.  Duncan has written numerous books, articles, and commentaries on a wide variety of legal topics. His recent publications include two of the leading law review articles on the Free Exercise Clause, and his essay, “On Liberty and Life in Babylon: A Pilgrim’s Pragmatic Proposal,” which was published by Yale University Press in an important book about Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought.  Duncan lives on a gravel road in rural Nebraska with his wife and 5 children, and he is a lifelong citizen of Red Sox Nation.

Ben Barros

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Milestone: 33,333 vistors

 

We have just passed a milestone here at Properyprof--33,333 visitors.  Thanks for stopping by and contributing to the discussion of property law.  I hope you'll continue to stop by--and send your students here, too--and especially that you'll participate in the comments.  We're talking about all sorts of cool stuff: recent scholarship, recent cases (and some old ones, too), teaching methods, takings, note topics....  And I'm sure that Ben, Rachel, Calvin, and Carl are going to be saying a lot more worth reading.

Credits: The picture of a Roman milestone from St Margarethen Austria is courtesy of our friends at wikipedia.  The idea for this post came from Dave Hoffman, over at co-op.

Alfred L. Brophy

Carl Christensen Blogging With Propertyprof

It is my pleasure to introduce Professor Carl Christensen of the University of Hawaii Law School.  Carl will be blogging with us for a while, mostly I suspect on topics of Native Americans and Native Hawaiians.  After graduating from Harvard Law School, Carl practiced with a firm in Honolulu and then with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, where he argued among other cases Pioneer Mill, which we're spoken about a little.  He also spent time on the Hill, before moving to the University of Hawaii, where he teaches Native American Law, as well as historic preservation law.  Oh, yes, and before law school Carl was a biologist; he studied snails.  And as I've said before, he's a great humanitarian.

Close readers of propertyprof will recall that Carl tiped me off to a lot of posts, including the ones on Pioneer Mill and on taro.  I'm sure he'll have a lot to say about aloha jurisprudence.  You're in for a real treat--like Rachel and Calvin, Carl's a terrific conversationalist and an extraordinary lawyer.  I know his posts will be most interesting and I guarantee many will be on topics you haven't heard much about, but once you read them you'll realize you need to know all about them.

These days we've assembled an awesome group of bloggers--Ben, our leader, and our vistors (who I hope will stay for a long while) Calvin Massey, Rachel Godsil, and Carl Christensen.  We're gonna have some fun.

Endnote: The image of Pioneer Mill is from the University of Hawaii Center for Oral History.

Alfred L. Brophy

Moonlighting at MoneyLaw: Law Review and Law School Rankings

Jim Chen has been kind enough to invite me to join his shop MoneyLaw.  I'm pleased and honored to be joining them there--along with one of my employer's here at the lawprof blog network, Paul Caron, and two people whose work I respect greatly: Ronen Perry and Tom Bell.  And I understand from Jim that a few other people will also be joining them shortly.

So I'm going to be posting a little bit over there, as well as my usual property stuff here.  I think, actually, I'll be cross-posting much of the stuff on moneylaw here as well, since moneylaw is dedicated to refining measures of quality in the legal academy.  (The motto of moneylaw is "the art of winning an unfair academic game.") 

My first post over at moneylaw talks a topic I've posted on a bunch here at propertyprof, as well: the relationship between law review citations and law school ranking.  I hope you'll visit moneylaw; it's certain to get lots and lots of attention.

(Dig the Alabama mascot in the post over at moneylaw.  Every time I see the elephant I am reminded of a conversation I had with Barbara Fedders of Harvard Law School shortly before I moved to Alabama.  She asked me what the school's mascot is.  And I had to admit that I didn't know.  But I soon found out.  Now I think of her every time I see a statute or picture of an elephant around town--which, as you might expect, is rather often.)

The image of the moon is courtesy of our friends at NASA.

Alfred L. Brophy

Calvin Massey Blogging

I'm delighted to report that Calvin Massey of the University of California, Hastings Law School is going to be blogging with us for a while.  Calvin's the author of many important works, including the popular American Constitutional Law: Powers and Liberties (2nd ed. Aspen 2005) and Silent Rights: The Ninth Amendment and the Constitution's Unenumerated Rights (Temple 1995) and such articles as "The Jurisprudence of Poetic License" in the Duke Law Journal and "State Sovereignty and the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments" in the University of Chicago Law Review.  Propertyprofs will be particularly interested in "An Assault Upon 'Takings' Doctrine," in the Indiana Law Journal and "Designation of Heirs" in Real Property, Probate and Trust.  Calvin's also author of a popular student guide on Property; I know it's popular because I saw many of property students reading it last spring.  One of Calvin's trademarks is thoughtful, balanced commentary across a range of areas, including legal and constitutional history, federalism, and political theory.  Plus, he's a great conversationalist.

We're all looking forward to much thoughtful commentary on property and maybe even some other topics, too.  And as you can see from his first post, on the abolition of slavery, he's rethinking how to teach property.  Ah, yes, how property ends--which is related to how we acquire the right to property in the first place.  I'd be interested in how we might use Calvin's insight to begin the property class.

Alfred L. Brophy

Clavin Massey

As you can tell from the post immediately above, Calvin Massey is joining us for a guestblogging stint.  Calvin teaches property, constitutional law, and other courses at UC Hastings.  His scholarship covers a wide range of subjects; in the property area, he has written on reparations, takings, and is the author of the ever-popular Emanuel on Property.

Welcome Calvin!

UPDATE:  Calvin's so special that he gets to be introduced by both me and Al!  What an honor!  As usual, Al's introduction is better than mine.

Ben Barros

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Rachel Godsil

I'm delighted to introduce Rachel Godsil, who will be joining us for a guest stint here at PropertyProf.  Rachel teaches Property and related courses at Seton Hall Law School and writes on issues concerning the intersection of race, property, and the environment.  Al recently discussed Rachel's article on Race Nuisance:  The Politics of Law in Jim Crow, and in recent years Rachel has been one of the most insightful commentators on issues of environmental racism in the legal academy.  Look for Rachel's first post in the next few days.

Ben Barros

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Lewyn Blogging

Thanks to Michael Lewyn (Florida Coastal) for the post immediately below on sprawl.  Regular readers will remember Michael from last year's sprawlfest.  Keep your eye out for future posts from Michael in the future.

Ben Barros

Paulsen and the West Wing

Thanks to Kurt Paulsen for the post immediately below on Takings and the West Wing.  Regular readers will remember Kurt from last year's sprawl fest.

Ben Barros

Look to your left . . .

And you will see that Al Brophy, who has been guest blogging here for the past month or so, has become a contributing editor to this blog.  Welcome, Al, and thanks for your great posts so far.

Ben Barros

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Brophy Blogging

I'm delighted that Alfred L. Brophy will be guest blogging here for a bit.  Brophy is professor of law at the University of Alabama, where he teaches property, wills, and remedies.  He is visiting this semester at the University of Hawaii.  His publications include Reconstructing the Dreamland:  The Tulsa Riot of 1921 (Oxford University Press, 2002) and Reparations Pro and Con (forthcoming later this year from Oxford).  He is currently working on the idea of equity in property jurisprudence.  I'm looking forward to his posts!

Ben Barros

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Reader Survey

Please take a moment to fill out our short reader survey here.  We would like to have a better idea about who is reading this blog so we can better serve you.  Thanks in advance for your help.  (The survey will remain at the top of the middle column throughout this week.)

No Longer Just the Barros Blog

I'm delighted to report that the last post on this blog was from someone other than me!  John Lovett, who teaches at Loyola-New Orleans and is the incoming chair of the AALS Property Section, has contributed a post on the rebuilding of New Orleans and may contribute more posts in the future.  If you are a property professor (or just want to play one on the internet) and are interested in contributing to this blog, please let me know.

Ben Barros

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Welcome to the Property Profs Blog!

Thanks for stopping by!  This blog is designed to serve as a forum for the discussion of anything and everything related to the teaching and academic study of property law.  If you have any comments, questions or ideas, please e-mail me.  Please also send along conference announcements, job posts, new posts on SSRN, or anything else you think might be of interest.

Ben Barros