Property F: Information Memo #1 (8/16/07)
PROPERTY C1 & E1: INFORMATION MEMO #1 (8/17/10)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. COURSE OUTLINE & TENTATIVE SCHEDULE (IM1)
B. SCHEDULING INFORMATION (IM2)
C. INFORMATION ABOUT THE COURSE (IM2-10)
D. INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR (IM10-12)
E. OUT AT FIRST (IM12-14)
F. INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS (IM14-15)
A. COURSE OUTLINE & TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Unit I: The Bundle of Sticks
Introduction to a Legal Understanding of Property
CHAPTER 1: An Important Stick: The Right to Exclude and Some Exceptions
(August 18-31)
CHAPTER 2: The Statute of Limitations: Adverse Possession Doctrine
(August 30-September 14, September 24)
CHAPTER 3: Tort-Like Limits on the Right to Use: Nuisance & Related Doctrines
(September 13-21)
Unit II: Such a Deal!
Voluntary Transfers of Property Rights
CHAPTER 4: Where There’s a Will … and Where There Isn’t: Property Transfer at Death
(September 20-28)
CHAPTER 5: Nobody’s Perfect: Physical and Title Defects in Purchased Property
(September 27-October 5)
Unit III: Mi Casa es Su Casa
Divided Rights in the Same Piece of Land
CHAPTER 6: Leased But Not Last: Selected Problems in Landlord-Tenant Law
(October 6-21, October 25-26)
CHAPTER 7: The Shadow of the Past: Estates and Future Interests
(October 22-November 5)
CHAPTER 8: Dividing Rights by Contract: The Law of Servitudes
(November 8-24)
B. SCHEDULING INFORMATION
Our classes will usually meet for ninety-minute sessions with a ten-minute break in the middle. The first class meeting for each section will begin at 8:00 a.m. and we will run for 80 minutes, including the break. After that, in an ordinary week, the schedule will be:
PROPERTY C1: MON/WED/FRI 7:50-9:20 a.m.
PROPERTY E1: TUE/THU 7:50-9:20 a.m. & FRI 9:45-11:15
Below you will find a tentative list of exceptions to the ordinary meeting times as well as other dates that will be significant.
MON SEP 6: NO CLASS (LABOR DAY)
TUE/WED SEP 7/8: Written Assignment #1 Due at Start of Class
THU/FRI SEP 9/10: NO CLASS (ROSH HASHANAH)
FRI SEP 24: PROPERTY C1 & E1 MEET TOGETHER 8-10 am (ROOM TBA)
Written Assignment #2 Due at Start of Class
WED/THU OCT 6/7: Written Assignment #3 Due at Start of Class
MON OCT 11-FRI OCT 15: NO CLASS (FALL BREAK)
FRI OCT 22: PROPERTY C1 & E1 MEET TOGETHER 8-10 am (ROOM TBA)
FRI OCT 29: Written Assignment #4 Due at Start of Class
FRI NOV 5: MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST ON CHAPTER 7: (Time and Rooms TBA)
NO REGULAR CLASS MEETING
WED NOV 24: PROPERTY C1 & E1 MEET TOGETHER 8-10 am (ROOM TBA)
C. INFORMATION ABOUT THE COURSE
Welcome to Property. Although many people would tell you that Property is the most difficult course in the traditional first-year curriculum, I will attempt to convince you that it is the most interesting. The course examines many of the fundamental building blocks of our society and, more than any other required subject, demonstrates how much the legal system affects most people's day to day lives.
Structure and Themes of Property
A common complaint about Property is that the various topics we will discuss often seem unrelated. At times, you may become frustrated because you cannot see a whole developing out of the parts. One major theme of the course, which may help you hold it all together, is that Americans generally hold a cultural belief that what “property” means is that you get to do whatever you want with what is yours. Whether or not this would be a good idea, it is patently not true in the American legal system. We will explore what the limits are, whether they make sense, and whether we can develop some coherent theories of when the state can appropriately limit property rights.
Some other questions that are typical of law school will recur during the course. What do normal people expect to happen in a particular situation? Should we honor those expectations? Should we allow people to choose what they want to do with their property or should we try to require them to do what is best for the greatest number of people? If the latter, how do we determine what that is? When, if ever, should we allow the wishes of dead people to govern how we can use the property they used to own? Regularly thinking about these questions may help you see connections between the topics in the course.
In any event, Property law is not a coherent interrelated system like Newtonian physics. The various rules and methods of analysis developed individually against different historical and political backgrounds and do not fit together neatly. Thus, if the course doesn’t seem to gel, don't despair. Property in fact covers the most diverse cross-section of material of any of any required course in the curriculum, and you may find it helpful to think of it primarily as a survey course.
Mechanics of the Class
Materials: You will need to buy, and should bring to every class, the assigned casebook: Paul Goldstein & Barton H. Thompson, Jr., Property Law: Ownership, Use and Conservation. You also will need to download the Supplemental Course Materials as they are made available on the course web page. I strongly suggest that you make a hard copy of your Supplemental Materials, place them in a binder or notebook along with this memo, and bring them to each class. Finally, you will need to purchase the supplement we will use for Chapter 7: Linda H. Edwards, Estates in Land & Future Interests (Third Edition), and bring it to class when we cover the relevant material.
During the semester, I will post on the course page supplemental course materials, syllabi and assignment sheets, old exams and best student answers, and more “Information Memos,” which will include clarifications of class discussions, suggested answers to problems and questions we don’t fully cover in class, comments and sample answers on written assignments, useful questions from student e-mails, etc. You should treat these Information Memos as required reading for the course.
Hornbooks, commercial outlines, etc. are not recommended as a primary source of information. If you use them, please remember that they tend to give simplistic versions of the law and to focus insufficiently on developing arguments and methods of analysis. Also remember that you will receive credit on the exam only for cases and issues covered in class or in the assigned course materials.
You may well discover a market in supplemental materials (briefs, notes, outlines, etc.) prepared by prior years’ Property students. I strongly suggest you do not heavily rely on them. For one thing, I switch my coverage and emphasis from year to year, so the old materials may not be particularly helpful to understand what is happening in our current class. More significantly, an important part of learning, particularly in a first-year course, is working through things yourself, in a way that makes sense to you. Relying on someone else’s perceptions or analysis deprives you of a chance to hone your own skills and may not be very helpful if your thought processes differ. If you’re having trouble understanding things on your own, I think you’d be much better off to talk to me or to your current classmates than to rely on materials from prior years that are of uncertain quality and relevance.
Class Meetings, Cancellations and Make-up Class(es): I find that 80 minute classes tend to strain most people’s attention spans and bladders, particularly first thing in the morning. Thus, beginning on the second day of class, our classes scheduled for 8:00 a.m. will meet at 7:50 a.m. and take a ten-minute break after about 40 minutes, then continue to the scheduled ending time at 9:20 a.m. The Section E1 class meeting on Fridays will extend from 9:45-11:15, also with a ten-minute break. I have regularly done this in the past and found that students generally appreciate the break.
We will not meet on Thursday or Friday September 9-10 (Rosh Hashanah). Both sections will make up one missed class by extending some of the scheduled sessions to two hours. Section E1 will make up its second missed class by meeting jointly with Section C1 on the last day of class (Wednesday November 24). Please mark your calendars accordingly.
In addition, we often lose class days in the Fall to hurricanes and tropical storms and, very occasionally, when I am too sick to teach. If one or more classes are cancelled:
· Assume that the next time the course meets, we will cover the material scheduled for the cancelled class (the first cancelled class if more than one).
· We will make-up any cancelled classes, probably by extending the normal meeting time for two or three later sessions.
· I will post revised assignment sheets reflecting any necessary adjustments and make-up classes
Office Hours & Other Out-of-Class Interactions: I will have office hours on Mondays and Tuesdays from 10:00 a.m. to noon, on Wednesdays from 2:30-4:30 p.m., and by appointment. I am aware that portions of the scheduled times conflict with some of your other classes, but there should be plenty of available times for students in each section. My assistant does not keep my calendar, so you must set up appointments with me directly either in person or by e-mail <>.
Feel free to stop by my office (Law Library Room 280) without an appointment. If I’m free, I’ll be happy to talk to you; otherwise I’ll make an appointment for a later time. If you have questions about the course or about law school generally, e-mail is a good way to communicate. I check my messages at least daily during the work week, and I am likely to respond as soon as I get the message. If I think a question you ask is worth sharing with the class, I may copy your question and my answer and circulate them to everyone, deleting your name and other references to you.
In addition, beginning the first full week of the semester, I will have lunch at the food court with groups of up to seven students on Mondays and Wednesdays for Section E1 and on Tuesdays and Thursdays for Section C1. You can bring your lunch or buy something from one of the exciting food court options. I intend these lunches simply to be an informal opportunity for you to ask whatever questions are on your mind that week and for me to get to know you better. During the first week of school, I will pass around sign-up sheets so you can schedule a lunch at your convenience.
In The Classroom
Courtesy: As a courtesy to me and your fellow students, please be in your seats and ready to begin at the time the class is scheduled to start and again at the end of the break. If you arrive late, enter and seat yourself quietly in one of the empty seats in the back of the room. Do not climb over other students to reach your assigned seat.
During the class sessions, please do not leave the classroom except for emergencies. If you do have to leave the room, please don’t try to go back to your seat until the session is over. You are welcome to re-enter the room quietly and sit in one of the empty seats in the back and listen. If you think you will need to leave the room more frequently because of a medical condition, speak to me and we can get you a seat convenient to one of the doors. Similarly, if you know in advance that you need to leave in the middle of a particular class, tell me and I will have you sit in the back that day.
Most of you greatly resent rustlings, whisperings, tappings, and slurpings while you are trying to take notes or to respond when called on. Therefore, to the extent humanly possible, please do not whisper, tap, rustle or slurp in class. It is very disruptive in this classroom when students talk to each other while I or other students address the class. If you do this, I may assume you wish to participate and call on you, whether or not you are on call. I also may tell you to be quiet. There is a time-honored method of communicating during class that does not annoy others nearly as much: pass notes!
The proliferation of electronic devices in recent years has led to new high tech versions of discourtesy that I request that you avoid. Before coming to class, turn off cellular phones and pagers that beep. If you use a laptop computer in class, turn the sound off. I find listening to the WindowsÒ theme music in class quite irritating, particularly after we have started to work. When using the laptop in class, only bring up onto your screen your notes, the course materials, or programs that consist entirely of text. Do not open computer games, movies, or other internet sites containing pictures or video, all of which can significantly distract the students sitting behind you, particularly in this classroom. If you are caught violating the rule, I will give you a choice of taking a small penalty (to be subtracted from the points you receive toward your final grade) or doing without the laptop for a few classes. Repeated offenses will result in greater penalties.
The Panel System & Class Assignments: To facilitate high quality class participation, I employ a panel system. For the first five class meetings, I will feel free to call on anyone in the class. After that, I will divide each class into five roughly equal panels (this semester named after types of grains[1]). I then will divide up the material we read so that one particular panel will be “on call” and have primary responsibility for most assignments. Of course, you are responsible for and should prepare all assigned material and anyone is free to volunteer to participate whether or not they are on call. However, I will start the discussion of assigned material by calling on people from the responsible panel. During the third class meeting, I will ask you to turn in a list of people you’d like to study with (if any) so I can put you on the same panel. This will facilitate your preparing together when you are on call.