Property Law Flashcards
Rivalrous
Your use does interfere with another use of information
Non-Rivalrous
Your Use of Information does NOT interfere with others’ use of information
Excludable
You can exclude others from your property - i.e. Physical property
Non-Excludable
It is difficult to exclude others from your property - .e. information
Defenses to Property Rights
- Eminent Domain
- Easements
- No racial covenants
- Adverse possession
- Zoning laws
Tragedy of the Anticommons
- Multiple owners hold rights to a scarce resource
- Private land and others can’t get to resource (too many rights to exclude)
Tragedy of the Commons
Land in common is overused
Three Rights of Property
(1) right to exclude:
(2) right to transfer
(3) right to use
Locke Labor Theory
Property is the way to reward your labor: put work into something, should be able to reap the reward
Personhood Theory
- How you express yourself in relation to the environment
- Person’s will having an effect on the world
- Personal property vs fungible property
Utilitarianism
:greatest interest of society: encourages land development and overuse: prevents tragedy of the commons
- give just enough protection for people to create works that otherwise wouldn’t but also don’t want to give too much protection to those who would create things anyway
- utilitarianism justification of property:
(1) incentives for development (private property fixes it because the right to exclude helps so others don’t take your idea or work you’ve done to your land)
(2) prevention of depletion of finite resources (scarcity: tragedy of the commons) - scarcity: privatization has worked for certain industries (lobsters & oysters) to prevent the tragedy of the commons)
- in other industries, it’s not necessary
- First occupancy or possession
- First to possess an item owns it
Liberty or civic republicanism
- Designed to implicate democratic self government
- If I have my own property maybe that allows me to play a greater role in the government
- Distributive justice or fairness
- Property can be used to give justice
Pierson v Post
Trespass on the case (less direct than trespass): Post was fox hunting with dogs on common land when Pierson stepped in with knowledge that Post had been hunting the fox and killed it himself.
Holding: pursuit alone is not enough: actually have to capture it or deprive it of its natural liberty through something like a net or a trap (Dissent: “reasonable test”: not clear, vague, & subjective)
-Policy reasoning: want foxes killed (Dissent: focuses on pursuit)
Popov v. Hayashi
Barry Bonds’ record-setting home-run baseball; MLB didn’t have a claim to the ball once in play the first person in possession is the new owner; ball hits Popov’s glove because of crowd that jumped on him: Hayashi, a bystander, picked it up. Court sold the ball at auction & split the $
Ghen v. Rich, U.S. Dst. Ct. – MA (1881)
Admiralty suit to recover the value of a fin-back whale: whale was found stranded on the beach and instead of sending word to the town, as custom, he took it to an auction and sold it to respondent (they didn’t know who killed it but did know someone in the business killed it)
- custom: whaler wins: when a whale is harpooned, it pops to the surface, whaler is sought and told about it (may not look at the future of the resource as much; sometimes looking to the industry is best)
- if apply Pierson v. Post, whaler still wins: mortal wounding is enough, dead: deprived of its natural liberty
Keeble v. Hickeringill (1707)
P had a decoy pond to trap ducks, D had his own pond but shot his gun to scare the ducks away from P’s pond
- D tries to hinder someone’s trade and livelihood (could have built a better duck pond and that would have been competition on the merits)
- P wins: interference with business interest: laws against unfair competition/malicious interference
- policy: consistent with Pierson v. Post: help kill as many ducks as possible
- constructive possession: not actual possession- continuation of possession as long as you have the intent and maintain ability to control (when duckies are on your land)
- policy purpose: to discourage trespass
Relativity of title
look at relation of title of parties and it’s not always with the rightful owner
-title isn’t an absolute thing: can occur between different parties
Domesticated animals
owner has rights to it: want to encourage domestication of animals and reward the owner but need to be sure to warn others that it is domesticated
- if it’s not typical of the area: obviously domesticated
- if it is typical of the area: need to do more to warn others
Eminent domain
government can take your land for public interest but must show significant interference
Fugitive resources
resources not owned by anyone
- oil and gas are collected in underground reservoirs
- today, probably have an injunction v. excessive drilling: policy matter: don’t want to use up all the resource: want the resource to be used in the future (limit on the rule of capture)
- not allowed to drill at an angle to cross someone else’s property
- surface water: (now, can’t take as much as you want, because it’s not in the best interest of the resource)
- prior appropriation: 1st to capture and put to beneficial use is the owner
- riparian: landowner along the source owns it
- groundwater:
- English rule: draw whatever want (similar to capture rule)
- American rule: can’t waste it (must be reasonable: encourage development)
Externalities
When a person does not consider the full impact of their action
- Not thinking about 3rd parties
- Resources can be misused
- i.e pollution, overuse
- Can be positive
- Music, flower boxes
- Things that benefit the community as well
- Can be positive
Cyber Property
- The right to exclude others from right to access to a network connected resource
- Libertarian’s – same rights as real property – transferred
- Trespass to chattel
- Use of, interference with, a persons tangible property – you must show harm.