Abstract:
This Essay puts forward the conceptual and normative underpinnings of a principle of abuse of property right. Owners abuse their right, I argue, when their decisions about a thing are designed just to produce harm. This is so whether that harm is an end in itself (spite) or a means to achieving some ulterior and possibly even valuable end (extortion). Theorists have tried to explain those limits concerned with spite in terms of maximizing utility or enforcing virtue. But these theories posit significant external limits on owners’ freedom and still do not explain those limits concerned with extortion. I argue that ownership’s political foundations account for its internal limits … (more)
Larissa Katz, ‘Spite and Extortion: A Jurisdictional Principle of Abuse of Property Right’. 122 Yale Law Journal 1444 (2013).
First posted 2013-04-27 06:35:32
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