Property Law Syllabus

This course will review the common and statutory law related to personal and real property in the United States. Although the focus is on the U.S., the law discussed has equal applicability to lawyers who are involved in property transactions in other common law countries.

The course covers the following broad topic areas over 12 weeks of class time. Some areas necessarily will take more than one week to cover in class.

1. Personal property and its acquisition. Ownership rights acquired by production, gift, will, finding, etc. Rules of fixtures and of bailment.

2. Public and private property rights in land and natural resources, including property rights between sovereigns, sovereign and public rights in shared natural resources and critical areas.

3. Individual property rights to natural resources. Reliance, possession, use, and title, as basis for property rights in land. Adverse possession.

4. Easements in property: created or implied. Prescriptive easements, easements by estoppel and conservation easements.

5. Public policy limits on the right to exclude Concepts of trespass, rights in diffused water, and rights of access. Approaches to judicial resolution of conflicts between private property. The concept of nuisance.

6. Shared interests in property. Introduction to the estates in land system and to future interests. Key cases on shared interests: The Rule Against Perpetuities, the Doctrine of Worthier Title, the Rule in Shelly's Case. Varieties of common ownership, such as joint tenancy and tenancy in common.

7. Private agreements pertaining to property: Covenants and equitable servitudes. Rules against restrictive covenants. Application of covenants to housing developments. .Terminating covenants and equitable servitudes.

8. Protection of public resources. Land use regulation and planning, prior non-conforming uses, variances. Condemnation and full and partial government takings. Environmental regulation.

9. Introduction to landlord-tenant law. Types of leaseholds estates, conflicts involving rent and occupancy. Warranties of habitability and quiet enjoyment.

A more detailed syllabus will be available from the Pericles office when the dates for the course are approaching.