Property Outline
I. Property Rights
A. Property law defines relationships with people and objects
B. Ownership of property gives you a “bundle of rights”
i. Right to give it away, donate, sell, enhance, prevent others from using it, etc.
ii. Alienation
a. Right to transferring of property
iii. Right to exclude is at the heart of property rights
iv. The rights in this bundle may change, but the fact that the bundle exists is a right of property.
II. Acquisition of Property
A. Discovery and Conquest
i. First in time, first in right.
ii. Rule of Capture
B. Johnson v. M’Intosh
i. Johnson (P) purchases land from Indians directly but D obtains land via grant from US and currently occupies the land.
ii. Holding
a. The Indians do NOT have property right to sell the land.
b. Natives only have the inalienable occupancy right to stay on the land, so they can’t be kicked off.
iii. Reasoning
a. Based on the rule of discovery, labor theory, cultural incapability, public policy, and limited rule of judicial branch.
b. Only the US has absolute title to negotiate or bargain sale of land due to customary European international law of discovery.
c. Public policy rationale
1. To assimilate the Indians to Christianity/Westernized thought.
2. Interest of the government to maintain the political status quo.
3. Uphold the US’ rights; otherwise, much of the US lands would open “Pandora’s Box” due to the large population of Indians still occupying the lands
d. EXCEPTION
1. Although the Indians were first in time, they weren’t able to retain rights with reinforcement.
C. Capture
i. Rule of Capture
a. Requires possession by intent, deprivation of natural liberty, AND bringing within capturer’s control.
b. Modern Day Application
1. If a person merely seduces away business from a competitor, that is healthy competition and is OK.
2. He can interfere as long as he intends to capture the animal.
3. BUT, if he violently or maliciously interferes with another’s business, he is liable for damages
iii. Labor theory alluded to as all the work was done by the chaser and concerned with utilitarian instrumental justification to capture the harmful beast for the community.
D. Virtues of a Legal Rule to Evaluate
i. Certainty
a. Minimize further litigations and quarrels by making law clear cut.
ii. Fairness
a. Based on trying not to give bad incentives/ill competition
iii. Utility
a. How the ruling encourages behavior or resource consumption efficiently
E. Ghen v. Rich
i. Whalers kill whales with bomb lanes that are denoted to show who killed. Takes the whales a few days to be found on the shore. The finder gets a finder’s fee for returning to private party who killed the whale.
ii. Holding
a. Killer gets the whale profits
Reasoning
