Property Law and the City (LAWS90134)

Property law governs relationships between people with respect to things. Cities combine humans and human endeavour in unparalleled proximity. This subject provides an opportunity for students to consider the connections between the law of property and urban environments. It will prompt students to ask how property law shapes cities and, in turn, how cities shape the law of property. Students will be introduced to a literature that attempts to identify the defining attributes of property, including private, common and state property, and then to a literature that considers the relations between the social institutions of law and of cities. The subject will then turn to several discreet property interests (covenants and strata property) and to expropriation law to examine their operation within the city. Finally, it will use the challenge of homelessness to focus attention on the appropriate regulation of public spaces or common property. Throughout the course, students will be asked to consider the tensions between private and public interests and to evaluate the balance between them. Students will develop research projects on some aspect of property law and the city, and will present their projects to the class in the city.