The Psychology of Property Law

by Stephanie M. Stern, Daphna Lewinsohn-Zamir, Linda J. Demaine (Preface by)

Overview

Considers how research in psychology offers new perspectives on property law, and suggests avenues of reform

Property law governs the acquisition, use and transfer of resources. It resolves competing claims to property, provides legal rules for transactions, affords protection to property from interference by the state, and determines remedies for injury to property rights. In seeking to accomplish these goals, the law of property is concerned with human cognition and behavior. How do we allocate property, both initially and over time, and what factors determine the perceived fairness of those distributions? What social and psychological forces underlie determinations that certain uses of property are reasonable? What remedies do property owners prefer?

The Psychology of Property Law explains how assumptions about human judgement, decision-making and behavior have shaped different property rules and examines to what extent these assumptions are supported by the research. Employing key findings from psychology, the book considers whether property law’s goals could be achieved more successfully with different rules. In addition, the book highlights property laws and conflicts that offer productive areas for further behaviorally-informed research.

The book critically addresses several topics from property law for which psychology has a great deal to contribute. These include ownership and possession, legal protections for residential and personal property, takings of property by the state, redistribution through property law, real estate transactions, discrimination in housing and land use, and remedies for injury to property.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479873500
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	02/25/2020
Series:	Psychology and the Law , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Stephanie M. Stern (Author)
Stephanie M. Stern is Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology.

Daphna Lewinsohn-Zamir (Author)
Daphna Lewinsohn-Zamir is Dean and Louis Marshall Professor of Environmental Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Stephanie M. Stern is Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology.

Stephanie M. Stern, J.D., conducts research that integrates behavioral science and property law, with a focus on housing law. She is Professor of Law at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she teaches courses on property, land use, environmental, and remedies law. Professor Stern has won awards for her empirical work in psychology and lectures nationally and internationally on the implications of behavioral science for the design of property and land use law.

Linda J. Demaine is Professor of Law and Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar at Arizona State University.

Table of Contents

Preface Linda J. Demaine ix

Introduction 1

Part I Rights in Property

1 Ownership and Possession 21

2 Protecting Homes and Other Types of Property 49

Part II State Interference with Property

3 Takings 85

4 Redistribution through Property Law 115

Part III Real Estate Transactions

5 Transacting Property 135

6 Discrimination and Exclusion 159

Part IV Remedies

7 Property Rules versus Liability Rules 191

8 In-Kind Remedies versus Monetary Remedies 204

Conclusion 217

Notes 227

References 247

Index 287

About the Authors 291

Editorial Reviews

"Seeks to answer certain open questions of property law with psychological evidence and arguments.... It will be enormously useful for anyone interested in the nexus of these two fields."

Dave Fagundes

"A deep dive into the way ownership and the law's response to it intersects with human psychology across a range of important contexts. Meticulously researched and conceptually nuanced, this book is an indispensable resource that expertly connects theory and evidence on the psychology of property entitlements with the law and policy surrounding possession, home ownership, takings law, discrimination, redistribution, and more."

Lee Anne Fennel

"An enormous contribution to the fields of property law, law and psychology, and even law more generally.... It has the potential to cause a radical rethinking of property law and policy and thereby to shape the law's effect on countless people's lives."

John Bronsteen

"How the field of psychology can explain, strengthen, or reform the notion of property is the subject of this book. Across eight chapters the authors look at how property ownership is related to theories of human personality and how the law treats different types of property, for example residential property, as more important than other types."

CHOICE

"An enormous contribution to the fields of property law, law and psychology, and even law more generally.... It has the potential to cause a radical rethinking of property law and policy and thereby to shape the law's effect on countless people's lives."

"Seeks to answer certain open questions of property law with psychological evidence and arguments.... It will be enormously useful for anyone interested in the nexus of these two fields."

From the Publisher