PERSON, PLACE, OR THING? PROPERTY AND THE STRUCTURING OF SOCIAL RELATIONS

Abstract

In positing a relationship between property and personhood, Margaret Jane Radin introduced an influential critique of traditional property theory, including law and economics. In this essay I propose an alternative account of the 'personhood' intuition, focusing on real property. This account of personhood focuses on the objective features of individual capacities for direct social relations rather than on the subjective relationship between a particular individual and a thing or place. Places like the home are significant for individual identity because rights of access provide the individual with control over the direct social relations that occur there. I further argue that maintaining this focus on the direct social relations fostered by rights of access to places can help us understand the nature of community interests in relation to certain kinds of public places and provide a basis for arguing for limitations to traditional property doctrines such as expropriation and trespass.

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