Property and Sovereignty: Legal and Cultural Perspectives

This book explores the relationships between property and the concept of sovereignty from a number of different perspectives. It distinguishes between the dual meaning of 'sovereignty' in property discourse - political sovereignty and owner sovereignty. The contributors discuss the nature of sovereignty in both senses, applying it to a wide range of topics such as the evolution of property rights in fragile and conflict-affected nation states, and notions of sovereign property in new worlds. A section on the Arts illuminates the relationships between property, sovereignty, and culture, and a further section investigates regulatory property and governmental control over resources. The book concludes with an exploration of sovereign shaping of private property entitlements to achieve instrumental ends. This interesting collection will be valuable to those in the fields of legal philosophy, property theory, international and comparative law, and political sociology. This book explores the relationships between property and the concept of sovereignty from a number of different perspectives. It distinguishes between the dual meaning of 'sovereignty' in property discourse - political sovereignty and owner sovereignty. The contributors discuss the nature of sovereignty in both senses, applying it to a wide range of topics such as the evolution of property rights in fragile and conflict-affected nation states and notions of sovereign property in new worlds. A section on The Arts illuminates the relationships between property, sovereignty and culture and a further section investigates regulatory property and governmental control over resources. The book concludes with an exploration of sovereign shaping of private property entitlements to achieve instrumental ends. This interesting collection will be valuable to those in the fields of legal philosophy, property theory, international and comparative law, and political sociology.

Contents: Introduction: property and sovereignty in the 21st century, James Charles Smith; Part I Fragile Nation States: Relaxing norms to restore rights to homes and land in the aftermath of war, Megan J. Ballard; Property endowments and social ordering: the long road to land law in East Timor, Daniel Fitzpatrick; Is there a right to territory in international law?, Alexandra R. Harrington. Part II New Worlds: Outer space and the non-appropriation principle, Steven Freeland; Property and sovereignty in virtual worlds, Wian Erlank. Part III The Arts: Property and sovereignty in HBO's Deadwood, Michael B. Kent Jr and Lance McMillian; American Scenery and American sovereignty: a quantitative analysis of landscape and property before the Civil War, Anna Elizabeth Lineberger and Alfred L. Brophy. Part IV Regulatory Property: The rise and fall of the 'underclass': ideology and governmental exclusion of the poor through zoning, David Ray Papke; Governmental marks: what souvenirs say about speech and sovereignty, Malla Pollack. Part IV The Shaping of Private Law: Adverse possession and sovereignty, Larissa Katz; The semi-sovereign corporation, Daniel J.H. Greenwood; Status, contract, identity, and sovereignty: what the Romans have to tell us about family property, David S. Rosettenstein; Index.