Introduction: A Legal Geography of Property Rights in Land

Abstract

The opening chapter sets out the aim of the work, which is to examine the common law concept of property in relation to land using a landscape lens. The chapter distinguishes this research from other genealogies of property by emphasising the use of the legal geography methodology to critique property in terms of its relation to space. The chapter summarises the main features of modern land law. The book’s structure is outlined, beginning with an exploration of property’s roots in landscape, an investigation of the development of the classic hallmarks of property through a legal geographical analysis of classic property theory, a discussion of property’s linkages to spatial injustice and a critique of progressive property’s potential to challenge the ownership paradigm in property law.