Owning Marijuana

Legal marijuana is the fastest-growing industry in the United States. It is premised on the assumption that marijuana ownership will be protected by law. But can marijuana be owned? This Article is the first scholarship to explore the issue. Federal law classifies marijuana as contraband per se in which property rights cannot exist. Yet the Article demonstrates that marijuana can now be owned under the law of most states, even though no state statutes or decisions expressly address the issue. This conflict presents a fundamental question of federalism: Can property rights exist under state law if they are forbidden by federal law? The Article explains why federal law does not preempt state law on marijuana ownership. This result creates a paradox: state courts and other state authorities will protect property rights in marijuana, but their federal counterparts will not. The Article analyzes the challenges arising from this hybrid approach to marijuana ownership. It also examines the fragmented status of marijuana ownership in the interstate context, where personal relationships or business transactions involve states with conflicting approaches to the issue

The Emergence of International Property Law

This Article explores a new field: international property law. International law increasingly creates, regulates, or otherwise affects the property rights of individuals, business entities, and other non-state actors. Globalization, democratic reforms, technology, and human rights principles have all contributed to this development. The Article begins by examining the unsuccessful effort to create a broad, internationally-enforceable human right to property during the second half of the twentieth century. Despite this failure, international property law doctrines have evolved in specialized contexts over recent decades. The Article demonstrates that these doctrines stem from four sources: (a) regulation of the global commons; (b) coordination of transboundary property rights; (c) adoption of global policies to prevent specific harms; and (d) protection of the human rights of vulnerable groups. Finally, the Article argues that the time has come to recognize international property law as a discrete subject, and thereby promote its coherent evolution in future decades. The Article discusses the value of recognizing international property law, explores an international definition of property

Understanding Property Law

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Property and Television

Property rights are-in large part-based on societal expectations. What shapes those expectations? One factor is television, our culture\u27s most important medium of communication. The modern reality show may be particularly powerful in affecting the attitudes of viewers because it presents a model of real life behavior. This essay is the first legal scholarship to explore the relationship between television and property rights. It focuses on Survivor, the CBS program that chronicles the lives of castaways trying to survive in a tropical wilderness, where property is both scarce and vital. Survivor is a reality show -and one of the most successful programs in television history. This essay explores four lessons that Survivor and similar programs teach the audience about property: (1) nature exists to provide property for humans; (2) a communal property system is feasible; (3) property is the reward for virtue;and, conversely, ( 4) property is the reward for vice. It concludes by suggesting that Survivor and other programs may push us backward toward Blackstone\u27s absolutist view of property rights