Babie on the Magna Carta, the Forest Charter, and the First Stories of Property

Paul T. Babie (Adelaide) has posted Magna Carta and the Forest Charter: Two Stories of Property - What Will You Be Doing in 2017? (North Carolina Law Review) on SSRN. Here's the abstract:

The legacy of Magna Carta contains so much more than merely the protection of property in the hands of the individual or individual freedom at the expense of the freedom of others. Indeed, one of the great themes emerging from Magna Carta, when one clears away its uses in American law, is the recognition of the community and obligation towards others as a balance to the protection of the individual and individual rights. But the process of clearing away the use of Magna Carta in American law requires a reunion of Magna Carta with its historical partner, the Forest Charter. In four Parts, this Article seeks to reunite these two great partners through the telling of two stories — one, the well-known story of Magna Carta’s place in how we understand property and the other, the entirely forgotten story of the Forest Charter’s balancing of Magna Carta’s first story of property. While we commemorate the first story in 2015, the other lies hidden in the mists of time.