Private Law Theory

ABSTRACT
In A Liberal Theory of Property I argue that property is one of society’s major power-conferring institutions. Property confers upon people some measure of private authority over things (both tangible and intangible). This temporally-extended private authority dramatically augments people’s ability to plan and carry out meaningful projects, either on their own or with the cooperation of others. Property’s empowerment, in other words, enhances people’s self-determination. But as such property also disables (other) people and renders them vulnerable to owners’ authority. Therefore, to be (and remain) legitimate, property requires constant vigilance. A genuinely liberal property must expand people’s opportunities for individual and collective self-determination while carefully restricting their options of interpersonal domination …

Dagan, Hanoch, Liberal Property and The Power of Law (July 15, 2022). Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence (forthcoming 2022).