Freyfogle and Karkkainen's Property Law: Power, Governance, and the Common Good (American Casebook Series)

This casebook offers a major contemporary reformulation of property law. The book frames property as a complex and evolving social institution, adapted to social and ecological contexts, linked to the common good, and implicating not just landowners and the state but community members, the landless, and future generations. Throughout the book emphasizes that property law comes from multiple legal sources--common law, the Constitution, statutes, and regulations. It anticipates future legal change by highlighting historic change and contemporary legal and policy debates. Short enough to cover completely in a 6-hour, two-semester course, the book relies, in its format, less on open-ended questions and more on clear explanatory notes and brief thematic essays. Notably, it includes legal exercises designed to help students with basic legal skills (statutory interpretation, reading contracts, etc.).