Property Section Newsletter/AALS Section Panels

Thanks to Kali Murray, the Secretary of the Property Section, this year's Property Section Newsletter is now available:  Download property_newsletter1_nov1.pdf.  Among other things, the Newsletter highlights the Section's two panels at the AALS conference in San Diego:

First, the Section is sponsoring an extended session titled Hernando de Soto and Property in a Market Economy.  Speakers include:  Gregory S. Alexander, Cornell Law School; Nestor Davidson, University of Colorado School of Law; Rashmi Dyal-Chand, Northeastern University School of Law; Nicole Stelle Garnett, Notre Dame Law School; Larissa Katz, Queen’s University, Ontario; Daniel B. Kelly, Harvard Law School; Eduardo M. Peñalver, Cornell Law School; Carol Rose, University of Arizona Rogers College of Law; Ezra Rosser, American University Washington College of Law.  Here's the panel description:

Hernando de Soto is one of the world’s leading public intellectuals. His books The Mystery of Capital and The Other Path have been tremendously influential. He has been included on Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and has received praise from politicians from across the political spectrum. His work also has been controversial, and some of his arguments have received sustained criticism.

One of de Soto’s core ideas is that the institution of private property is necessary for the proper functioning of a market economy. Many property scholars closely follow de Soto’s work, but de Soto’s ideas have been strangely neglected in property scholarship within the legal academy. His work has been widely discussed in the context of property in developing countries, but has not had the same impact on the property issues that arise in mature market economies like the United States.

This program seeks to remedy this neglect. It brings together a diverse group of scholars to apply de Soto’s work to a wide range of contemporary issues in property law and theory.

The Property Section business meeting will immediately follow the Hernando de Soto panel.

Second, as we did last year, the Section is sponsoring a Junior Scholars Works-in-Progress Panel.  Two papers will be presented: Strategic Spillovers: Using Externalities to Extract Payments by Daniel Kelly and An Efficient Breach of the Numerus Clausus by Leah Theriault.  Congratulations to Dan and Leah, whose papers were selected from a very strong group of submissions!

Ben Barros

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