Post by Dan Kelly
Donald Kochan (Chapman) recently published an essay, “Property as a Vehicle of Inclusion To Promote Human Sociability,” in JOTWELL—The Journal of Things We Like (Lots). The essay reviews my article on The Right to Include. In that article, I attempt to highlight the fact that private property allows owners not only to exclude but also to include others. Inclusion may occur informally, contractually, or through a range of property forms, from easements and leases to common-interest communities and trusts. While there are benefits from including others in property (think of Airbnb), there are also costs and potential pitfalls of inclusion—coordination difficulties, strategic behavior, and conflicts over use. For this reason, I argue, the law enables owners to select from a variety of forms that provide different types of anti-opportunism devices, including mandatory rules, fiduciary duties, and supracompensatory remedies. Ultimately, I contend that “ownership can be inclusive, rather than exclusive; it can facilitate cooperation, not just result in conflict; and it frequently promotes human sociability, not atomistic individualism.”
Here is an excerpt from Kochan’s review essay:
“Quite often, ‘private property’ brings with it characterizations of individualism, isolation, and exclusion along with images of fences, gates, locks, boundaries, and barriers. In fact, a ‘keep out’ sign has often been identified as a symbol for the essence of private property rights and their function. Professor Daniel B. Kelly reminds us that such images and characterizations miss a huge portion of the utility served by property law that fosters the capacity and motivation to hang a different sign—one that says ‘come on in.’
Professor Kelly dissects the reality that we do, after all, exercise our right to include every day. And, with each such inclusion, we are faced with potential conflicts. . . . One of the greatest benefits of Professor Kelly’s work is that he helps us understand how the law anticipates and navigates these pitfalls while optimizing the potential rewards of inclusivity along the way. Kelly reveals a roadmap for how the law should support a wide range of inclusion options in order to move owners’ private incentives toward a convergence with the socially optimal level of inclusion.”
Many thanks to Donald for his review of my article.