Property Roundtable at Tulane

On Friday, October 7, Tulane University Law School and the Tulane Murphy Institute hosted its second annual Property Roundtable on the regulation of public and private property rights. This year, the Property Roundtable enjoyed scholarship presentations on three different themes. The first theme covered intellectual property, technology, and sharing. Under this heading, Sonia Katyal (UC, Berkeley) presented her work on the marriage of technology and cultural heritage, and how their relationship impacts the modern museum. James Stern (William and Mary) also discussed his scholarship which questions whether intellectual property is really as non-rivalrous as many claim it to be.

The second theme of the day was public-private property, with work presented by Nestor Davidson (Fordham) and Sarah Schindler (Maine). Davidson discussed how big data might be used to help provide affordable housing and the potential problems in doing so. Schindler examined privately-owned public open spaces, why they are created, the difficulties they create, and how cities might remedy those difficulties.

The last theme for the day was the rights and duties of owners. During this section, Seth Davis (UC, Irvine) discussed whether fiduciary law might apply to owners, while Sally Richardson (Tulane) talked about what privacy rights apply to spouses in community property jurisdictions.

The Property Roundtable sparked interesting conversations regarding property law involving the presenters and other Roundtable participants, including Mark Davis (Tulane), John Lovett (Loyola), and Marc Roark (Savannah). A big thanks to my dean, Dave Meyer, and the Director for the Tulane Murphy Institute, Steve Sheffrin, for continuing to fund such an excellent forum for discussing property rights.