Finding Possession: Labor, Waste and the Evolution of Property

Authors

Jill M. Fraley, Washington and Lee University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Capital University Law Review

Publication Date

2011

Abstract

Although possession has long been intimately linked to labor, recent historical work on land claims during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries suggests that the clash of divergent legal cultures of possession drove the two apart. This clash yielded an American concept of possession much more deeply connected to industrialization than the traditional understanding of labor. By providing evidence of how our concept of labor was industrialized, this article questions the outcomes in modem possession cases, particularly as they impact development and environmental preservation in rural areas.

Comments

Originally Published in Capital University Law Review, 39 CAP. U. L. REV 51 (2011).

Recommended Citation

Jill M. Fraley, Finding Possession: Labor, Waste and the Evolution of Property, 39 Cap. U. L. Rev. 51 (2011).