11.493: LEGAL ASPECTS OF PROPERTY AND LAND-USE:
COMPARATIVE DIMENSIONS
Fall 2013
WEDNESDAYS: 2 - 5 PM, Room 9-450B
Professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal
Phone: 617-258-7721; Email: braj@mit.edu
Office hours: Tuesdays 4-6 pm or by appointment
DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to offer an advanced introduction to key legal issues that
arise in the area of property and land-use in American law, with a comparative
focus on the laws of India and South Africa, and illustrations from other countries
as appropriate. The focus of the course is not on law itself, but on the policy
implications of various rules, doctrines and practices which are covered in great
detail including legal aspects of the housing and sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Legal rules regulating property are among the most fundamental to American,
and most other economies and societies. They figure prominently in city and
local governance and economic development, in areas as diverse as housing,
zoning, environmental policy, and international development. Virtually every
public policy and planning issue has a ‘property angle’ to it, which makes it
essential to know how it works.
The main focus is on American property and land use law due to its prominence
in international development policy and practice as a model, though substantial
comparative legal materials are also introduced from selected non-western
countries such as India and South Africa. In these legal settings, it is commonly
believed that under American law, property is absolute. One question we will ask
throughout the course is how well-founded this notion of absolute property is,
under American law. Connected to this idea of absolute property is the notion of
property as the ownership of ‘things’. We will examine multiple strands in the law
of property that equally emphasize social relations between individuals,
community and other actors, as opposed to commoditized understandings.
Another theme running through the course is the extent to which judges and legal
decision-makers refer to non-legal justifications to reach their decisions and the
way these justifications construct and are constructed by conceptions of culture,
democracy, gender and race that inform human interactions. Supplemental
readings from other areas such as feminist theory, critical race theory, critical
legal theory, law and society and law and economics will be used to illuminate
these issues.
In planning law and practice, property and land use law is often narrowly
construed to mean only public law regulation such as zoning. We will critically
examine this approach by expanding the focus on how private individuals and
entities use law to regulate land use, and how courts influence these supposedly
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private agreements through their decisions. A critique of this public-private divide
is also one of the themes running through this course.
The course is divided into five parts. In the first part, we will consider the
meaning of property in law, the various justifications for property and the motives
behind those justifications. In the second part, we will examine a number of legal
doctrines that qualify absolute property by introducing notions of fair access and
fair use, and ask questions about the policy basis of those notions. In the third
part, we will discuss the legal doctrines behind public planning of land-use, such
as zoning and the relationship between private property and sovereignty. In the
fourth part, we will focus on the various private restrictions over land-use in the
public interest, in both residential and commercial sectors. The final part will
focus on the current trends in comparative property and land use law in India and
South Africa as well as the current international policy and legal developments
that have an impact on how many developing countries regulate property and
land-use.
The course will use a casebook, Joseph William Singer, Property Law: Rules,
Policies and Practices (5rd Edition, 2010), and a set of supplementary materials.
The casebook can be purchased at the Coop, or online at various book stores
like Amazon.com, while the supplementary materials will be posted on the course
website on stellar. The book will also be available at the Rotch library for
reference.
Discussions will focus on cases most of the time, not for the law as such, but for
the policy justifications. Students are encouraged to link up the principles and
policies to their own graduate research during class participation.
Grading
Grading for this course will be based mainly on one final analytical paper not
exceeding 25 pages (double-spaced) (50%) and two 5-page papers (double
spaced) (40%) on topics selected by the students. The topics for short papers
may be of a general nature or be on specific cases, but in either case the papers
must show a mastery of the themes covered and draw upon the materials in this
course. The due dates are noted on the syllabus and late submissions will not
be accepted under any circumstances.
The final paper topic must be chosen well in advance by the students in
consultation with the instructor, and the paper is due on the date noted in the
syllabus on the last page – delayed submissions will affect grade. The papers
must be submitted in Word or PDF on the homework section of the course stellar
site. Vigorous class participation (remaining 10%) is expected and encouraged.
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I will be available to meet with students during my office hours, on Tuesdays
between 4 and 6 PM. To set up appointments at other times, please email me or
my assistant, Phil Sunde.
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READING ASSIGNMENTS
PART I: PROPERTY, JUSTIFICATIONS AND COMPETITION
1. Class 1: 9/04/13 - Introduction to the course:
2. Class 2: 9/04/13 - Background:


Singer: pp.xliii-lxii; pp.177-183.
Morton Horwitz, The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860 (1977),
chapter 2.
Recommended:
 Jennifer Nedelsky, Private Property and the Limits of American
Constitutionalism: The Madisonian Framework and Its Legacy (1994),
introduction and conclusion.
 Carol M. Rose, The psychologies of property, in The Philosophical
Foundations of Property Law, J. E. Penner and H. E. Smith, eds., Oxford
University Press, 2013 available at
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2242970
3. Class 3: 9/11/13 - First possession and Conquest:


Singer: pp. 97-131.
Robert Williams, Jr., American Indian in Western Legal Thought (1990),
pp.246-51, chapter 7.
4. Class 4: 9/11/13 - First possession and Labor:


Singer: pp.160-164; pp.131-146.
Carol M. Rose, “Possession as the origin of property”, 52 U.Chicago. L. Rev.
73 (No.1, Winter 1985)
Recommended:
 Stephanie Coontz and Peta Henderson (eds.), Women’s work, Men’s
property: The origins of gender and class (1986), pp.108-155.
 R. Hirschon, Introduction, in R. Hirschon (ed), Women and Property,
Women as Property (1984)
5. Class 5: 9/18/13 - Competition versus property including corporations


Singer: Re-read pp.131-146; pp.231-239; pp.1216-1229.
Local 1330, United Steel Workers of America v. United States Steel
Corporation, 631 F.2d 1264 (6th Cir. 1980) (available on Lexis-Nexis)
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

Harold Demsetz, Toward a Theory of Property Rights, 57 Am.Econ.Rev.Pap
& Proc. 347 (1967), pp.347-358.
Robert C. Ellickson, Property in Land, 102 Yale L.J. 1315 (1993), pp.13221335; 1341-1344.
Recommended:
 Barry C. Field, The evolution of property rights, 42 Kyklos 319 (1989).
6. Class 6: 9/18/13 – Courts, policy and flexibility:



Singer: pp.337-348.
Carol Rose, Crystals and Mud in Property law, 40 Stan.L.Rev. 577 (1988),
pp.1-6; 19-30.
Duncan Kennedy, A Critique of Adjudication: fin de siecle (1997), chapter 2.
Recommended:


Marc Galanter, Justice in Many Rooms: Courts, Private Ordering, and
Indigenous Law, 19 J.Legal Pluralism 1 (1981).
Duncan Kennedy, A Critique of Adjudication: fin de siecle (1997), chapter 6.
PART II: PROPERTY, FAIRNESS AND ACCESS
1. Class 7: 9/25/13 - Security of property and Adverse possession:



Singer: pp.281-332.
Robert C. Ellickson, The untenable case for an Unconditional Right to Shelter,
15 Harv.J.L.&Pub.Pol’y 17 (1992), pp.17, 20-28, 32-34.
Eduardo Penalver and Sonia Katyal, Property Outlaws: How Squatters,
Pirates, and Protesters Improve the Law of Ownership (2010), chapter 3.
2. Class 8: 9/25/13 - Public policy limits on Trespass:

Singer: pp. 3-32.
Recommended:


Intel Corp. v. Hamidi, 71 P.3d 296 (Cal, 2003) (available on Lexis-Nexis).
United Food and Commercial Workers’ Union, Local 919 AFL-CIO v.
Crystal Mall Associates L.P., 852 A.2d 659 (Conn, 2004) (available on
Lexis-Nexis).
3. Class 9: 10/02/13 - Public accommodations, antidiscrimination and access
rights:

Singer: pp.33-56.
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

Kimberle' Williams Crenshaw, Race, Reform, and Retrenchment:
Transformation and Legitimation in Antidiscrimination Law, 101 Harv.L.Rev.
1331 (1988), pp. 1-7; 16-20; 48-70.
Frank Michelman, “Possession vs. distribution in the constitutional idea of
property”, 72 Iowa L. Rev. 1319 (No.5, July 1987), pp. 1-5; 26-42.
Recommended:
 Joseph W. Singer, No right to exclude: Public accommodations and
private property, 90 Northwestern U.L.R. 1283 (1996), pp.6-29, 242-301.
4. Class 10: 10/02/13 - Public Trust, Commons, and private property:


Singer: pp.56-69.
Carol Rose, The Comedy of the Commons: Custom, Commerce, And
Inherently Public Property, 53 University of Chicago Law Review 711 (1986),
pp.711-723; 727-730; 773-781.
Recommended:
 Richard Delgado, Our Better Natures: A Revisionist View of Joseph
Sax's Public Trust Theory of Environmental Protection, and Some Dark
Thoughts on the Possibility of Law Reform, 44 Vand.L.Rev.1209
(1991), pp.1209-1227.
 Hanoch Dagan & Michael A. Heller, The Liberal Commons, 110 YALE
L.J. 549 (2001)
5. Class 11: 10/09/13 - Fair use of property, support easements and Nuisance:


Singer: pp.348-357; pp.368-422;
District of Columbia v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp., 872 A.2d 633 (DC, 2005)
(available on Lexis-Nexis).
III. PROPERTY, PLANNING AND PUBLIC REGULATION
1. Class 12: 10/09/13 - Land-use planning and Zoning:




Singer: pp.1027-1038; pp.1014-1026.
Zuckerman v. Town of Hadley, 813 N.ED.2d 843 (Mass, 2004) (available
on Lexis-Nexis).
Village of Willowbrook v. Olech, 528 U.S. 562 (2000) (available on LexisNexis).
Daniel R. Mandelker & Roger A. Cunningham, Planning and Control of
Land Development, 1-24 (3rd ed., 1990).
Recommended:
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
Andrew J. Cappel, A Walk along Willow: Patterns of Land Use
Coordination in Pre-zoning New Haven (1870-1926), Note, 101 Yale L.J.
617 (1991), pp.617-637.
FIRST 5-PAGE PAPER DUE ON 10/10/11
2. Class 13: 10/16/13 - Land-use planning, limits to zoning and environmental
regulation





Singer: pp.1038-1068.
Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District (Supreme Court,
Decided June 25, 2013) (available on Lexis Nexis)
Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, 533 U.S. 606 (2001) (available on LexisNexis).
Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning
Agency, 535 U.S. 302 (2002) (available on Lexis-Nexis).
Thomas C. Schelling, “Prices as Regulatory Instruments”, in Incentives for
Environmental Protection (Thomas C. Schelling, ed., 1983).
3. Class 14: 10/16/13 - Property, slavery, race and discrimination:



Singer: pp.540-551; pp.925-948; pp.984-993; pp.255-261.
Arguello v. Conoco Inc., 330 F.3d 355 (5th Cir, 2003) (available on LexisNexis).
Ezra Rosser, The Ambition and Transformative Potential of Progressive
Property, 101 Cal.L.Rev. 107 (2013).
Recommended:
 Richard T. Ford, The Boundaries of Race: Political Geography in Legal
Analysis, 107 Harv. L. Rev. 1841 (1994), pp.1841-47; 1860-1885; 19181920.
4. Class 15: 10/23/13 - Property and sex-based discrimination:

Singer: pp.948-974; pp.994-1003.
Recommended:
 Carol Rose, “Women and property: Gaining and losing ground”, 78
Virginia L. Rev. 421 (1992), pp.421-459.
5. Class 16: 10/23/13 - Property and economic discrimination:

Singer: pp.980-984; re-read pp.1014-1026; pp.807-816.
6. Class 17: 10/30/13 - Property, sovereignty and Takings:
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



Singer: pp.1071-1093; pp.1103-1168.
Stop the Beach Renourishment Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, 130 S.Ct. 483 (2010) (available on Lexis Nexis).
North Adams Apartments L.P. v. City of North Adams, 2011 Mass.App. Lexis
41 (App.Ct.2011) (available on Lexis Nexis).
Frank Michelman, Property, Utility and Fairness: Comments on the Ethical
Foundations of “Just Compensation” Law, 80 Harv. L. Rev. 1165 (1967),
pp.1165-1169; 1214-1238; 1245; 1253-1258.
IV. PROPERTY, LAND-USE AND PRIVATE RESTRAINTS
1. Class 18: 10/30/13 - Servitudes, Licenses and Easements:

Singer: pp.423-462; p.475.
2. Class 19: 11/06/13 – Covenants:

Singer: pp. 475-501; pp. 512-518; pp.526-540.
3. Class 20: 11/06/13 - Common Ownership and Housing:


Singer: pp. 663-671; pp. 532-540; pp. 551-573.
Duncan Kennedy, “Neither the Market nor the State: Housing Privatization
Issues”, in G.Alexander & G. Skapska (eds), A Fourth Way?: Privatization,
Property and the Emergence of New Market Economies (1994), pp. 253-266.
Recommended:
 Gregory S. Alexander, Dilemmas of Group Autonomy: Residential
Associations and Community, 75 Cornell L. Rev. 1 (1989), pp.1-6; 33-61.
V. COMPARATIVE LAW OF PROPERTY AND LAND USE AND
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY
NO CLASS ON 11/13/13 - CANCELLED
1. Class 21: 11/20/13 - Redressing the legacy of apartheid in South Africa:
Rural Land restitution






Constitution of South Africa (relevant provisions)
1994 Restitution of Land Rights Act 22.
1996 Land Reform (Labor Tenants) Act 3.
1997 Extension of Security of Tenure Act 62.
Vinodh Jaichand, The Restitution of Land Rights (1997), pp.1-76.
Marinda Weideman, Who shaped South Africa’s Land Reform Policy?,
Politikon (November 2004), vol.31(2), pp.219-232.
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


Communal Land Rights Act Judgment (2010) CCT 100/09 ((for all South
African cases, go to http://www.law.wits.ac.za/ and then click on the
relevant link or google the entire case)
Alexor Ltd. And the Government of the Republic of South Africa v.
Richtersveld community, CCT 19/03, 2003.
Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill, 2013 (available at
http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=190589)
Recommended:






City Council of Springs v. Occupants of the Farm Kwa-Thema, LCC
R10/98 (2 September 1999) (same as above).
The Minister of Land Affairs of the Republic of South Africa and another v.
Omar Slamdien and others, LCC 107/98 (10 February 1999).
Former Highlands Residents: Ash and others v Department of Land Affairs
LCC116/98 (10 March 2000) (go to http://www.law.wits.ac.za/ and then
click on the relevant link, especially paragraphs 21-38).
Theunis Roux, Pro-poor Court, Anti-poor outcomes: Explaining the
performance of the South African Land Claims Court, 20 South African
Journal of Human Rights 511 (2004) (go to http://www.law.wits.ac.za/ and
then click on the relevant link).
Jeremy Waldron, Superseding Historic Injustice,103 ETHICS 4 (1992).
Demopoulos and Others v. Turkey [GC], nos. 46113/99, 3843/02,
3751/02, 13466/03, 10200/04, 14163/04, 19993/04, 21819/04 §70, Eur.
Ct. H.R. 2010-IV
2. Class 22: 11/20/13 - Urban dilemmas: Land invasions, housing rights and
evictions





1998 Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful occupation of land
Act No.19.
Government of R.S.A. v. Grootboom, CCT 11/00 (4th October 2000,
Constitutional Court of South Africa) (go to http://www.law.wits.ac.za/ and
then click on the relevant link).
Port Elizabeth Municipality v. Various Occupiers, CCT 53/03, 2004 ((go to
http://www.law.wits.ac.za/ and then click on the relevant link).
President of the Republic of South Africa and another v. Modderklip
Boerdery and Another, CCT 20/04, 2005 (go to http://www.law.wits.ac.za/
and then click on the relevant link).
Residents of Joe Slovo Community W Cape v Thubelisha Homes &
Others, CCT 22/08 (2009)
Recommended:

Marie Huchzermeyer, “Land invasions, evictions and the law in South
Africa”, unpublished draft, 2002.
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



Murray Wesson, Grootboom and Beyond: Assessing the Socio-Economic
Jurisprudence of the South African Constitutional Court, 20 South African
Journal of Human Rights, 284 (2004) (go to http://www.law.wits.ac.za/ and
then click on the relevant link).
Minister of Public Works and others v Kyalami Ridge Environmental
Association and others, Constitutional Court - CCT55/00, 29 May 2001 (go
to http://www.law.wits.ac.za/ and then click on the relevant link).
Jeanette Harksen v. Michael Lane NO and Others, CCT 9/97 (7 October
1997, Constitutional Court of South Africa) (go to
http://www.law.wits.ac.za/ and then click on the relevant link).
Stephen Berrisford, “Law and Urban Change in the New South Africa”, in
Illegal Cities: Law and Urban Change in Developing Countries (Edesio
Fernandes and Ann Varley eds., 1998), pp. 213-230.
SECOND 3-PAGE PAPER DUE ON 11/21/11
3. Class 23: 11/27/13 – Contestation over property rights in India:



Dharma Kumar, Colonialism, Property and the State (1998), pp.135-170;
pp.311-327.
Constitution of India (relevant provisions).
Granville Austin, Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian
Experience (1999), chapters 3 and 4.
Recommended:




Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
The Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 and The Urban land
(Ceiling and Regulation) Repeal Act, 1999.
Amanda Perry, “Law and Urban Change in an Indian City”, in Illegal Cities:
Law and Urban Change in Developing Countries (Edesio Fernandes and
Ann Varley eds., 1998), pp. 89-103.
Bina Agarwal, A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South
Asia (1994), chapter 5.
4. Class 24: 11/27/13 – Eminent Domain, Development displacement, contests
over land and housing rights:



Priya Gupta, The Peculiar Circumstances of eminent domain in India,
Osgoode Hall L.J., vol.49 (2012) (available at
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2095220)
Narmada Bachao Andolan v. Union of India and others, (2000) 10 SCC
664 (available on-line at http://www.narmada.org/sardarsarovar/sc.ruling/index.html#judgements).
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, “Limits of law in counter-hegemonic
globalization: The Indian Supreme Court and the Narmada Valley
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struggle”, in Boaventura de Souza Santos and César A. RodríguezGaravito, (eds.), Law and Globalization from Below: Towards a
Cosmopolitan Legality (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Recommended:
 Michael Cernea, Public policy responses to development-induced
population displacements, 31(24) Economic and Political Weekly 1515-23
(1996).
 M.L. Upadhyaya, “Agrarian reforms” in Fifty Years of the Supreme Court
of India: Its Grasp and Reach (S.K. Verma and Kusum eds., 2000).
 Jessie Hohmann, Visions of Social Transformation and the Invocation of
Human Rights in Mumbai: The Struggle for the Right to Housing, 13 Yale
H.R. & Dev. L.J. 135 (2010)
 Usha Ramanathan, “A Word on Eminent Domain” in in Lyla Mehta ed.,
Displaced by Development – Confronting Marginalisation and Gender
Injustice (2009), p. 133.
5. Class 25 - 12/04/13 - International Development Policy Prescriptions of
Property:




David Kennedy, Some Caution about property rights as a recipe for
economic development, 1 Accounting, Economics, and Law 1, pp 1-62
(2011).
Geoffrey Payne, Urban land tenure policy options: titles or rights? 25
Habitat International 415-429 (2001).
Michael A. Heller, The Tragedy of the Anticommons: Property in the
Transition from Marx to Markets, 111 HARV. L. REV. 621 (1998).
Alain Durand-Lasserve, “Law and Urban Change in Developing Countries:
Trends and Issues” in Illegal Cities: Law and Urban Change in Developing
Countries (Edesio Fernandes and Ann Varley eds., 1998), pp. 233-257.
Recommended:



World Bank, “Legal Institutions and the Rule of Law” in World
Development Report: From Plan to Market (1996).
World Bank, “Introduction” in World Development Report: Building
Institutions for Markets (2002).
G. Feder and D. Feeny, Land tenure and Property rights: Theory and
Implications for Development Policy, 5(1) World Bank Economic Review
135 (1991)
V. CONCLUSION
Class 26: 12/11/13 – Final Paper presentation.
FINAL PAPER DUE ON DECEMBER 14TH BY 5 PM
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