Reappraisals in the Law of Property

For ten years Orth (law, U. of North Carolina) wrote annual articles in the law journal Green Bag 2d on property law before he started noticing a unifying theme. More of a question, actually, he says. He has refocused and rearranged and somewhat consolidated the articles into a coherent inquiry into how a hodge-podge of ancient rules and modern conveniences that make up the American law of property came to be assembled, and how well the contraption works to serve the needs of contemporary society. He begins with cases, such as joint tenancy: accounting for continuity, leases: misled by a simile, and escheat: picking up the pieces. Then he explores driving forces, among them intention: the law of unintended consequences, fiction: pious fraud, and labels: argumentative jargon. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

John V. Orth is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law. His many books on subjects in law include How Many Judges Does It Take to Make a Supreme Court? And Other Essays on Law and the Constitution (University Press of Kansas, 2006) and The Judicial Power of the United States: The Eleventh Amendment in American History (Oxford University Press, 1991).