Possession is a foundational concept in property law. Despite its undoubted importance, it is poorly understood and a perennial source of confusion. Indeed, there is a widely held view amongst lawyers that possession is an irredeemably ambiguous and amorphous concept. This book aims to challenge this conventional wisdom and to demonstrate that possession is in fact far simpler than generations of lawyers have been led to believe.
In viewing possession as a knotty problem for the philosopher or legal theoretician, scholars are apt to overlook the important truth that possession is a concept that laymen routinely and, for the most part, effortlessly apply as they navigate through the countless property interactions that shape everyday life. The key to understanding the nature and function of possession in the law is to appreciate that the possession ‘rule’ is, first and foremost, a spontaneously emergent phenomenon. Possession describes those acts that, as a matter of an extra-legal convention, constitute the accepted way in which members of a given population stake their claims to tangible things.
Fusing traditional legal analysis with insights from philosophy and economics, An Expressive Theory of Possession applies this central claim to both theoretical and doctrinal problems in property law and, in doing so, provides a coherent explanation of possession and its role in law and life.
By:
Dr Michael JR Crawford (University of New South Wales Australia) Imprint: Hart Publishing Country of Publication: United Kingdom Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 331g ISBN:9781509944088 ISBN 10: 1509944087 Pages: 230 Publication Date:27 January 2022 Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
Michael JR Crawford is Lecturer in Law at the University of New South Wales.