Property
Values and Institutions
Hanoch Dagan
Reviews and Awards
"Professor Dagan's theory of property is unique and profoundly important. He offers the possibility of a via media between two poles prominent in American property scholarship: the law-and-economics approach and the Aristotelian approach. His book addresses questions that are central to the fundamental controversies in property theory today, and it should be read by anyone even remotely interested in matters of property and the state." --Gregory S. Alexander, A. Robert Noll Professor of Law, Cornell University
"Professor Dagan's central focus is that property is neither a singular right nor a collection of values. Rather, it is an institution which takes on different forms in different social settings; different in the context of marriage or common interest communities than in commerce or industry, and differently still in the context of copyright. This passionately argued book is full of insights. For anyone interested in property law, property theory, or intellectual property, its careful study will be richly repaid." --Thomas W. Merrill, Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
"Equal parts sophisticated and sensible, ambitious and precise, this book is an important re-assessment of the debates that define today's study of property. Its discussion is also a meditation-by-example on legal scholarship. Hanoch Dagan's morally sensitive pluralism and careful attention to institutions identify this work as both an essential treatment of property and a model for all normative approaches to the law." --Jedediah Purdy, Professor of Law, Duke Law School
"This book is a heartfelt call to a new understanding of what property is and what it does for us. Dagan argues for a clear but nuanced approach that recognizes that property contains multiple institutions and plural values; that property rights vary depending on social context; that property rights change over time as values and circumstances change; and that rights to acquire property are as important as rights to exclude others from what one owns. This book is a tour de force." --Joseph William Singer, Bussey Professor of Law, Harvard Law School