Typically, students find Property to be the more difficult of their first-year courses. Unlike other substantive courses like Contracts, CriminalLaw, and Torts whose doctrines can be taught in a systematic and coherent fashion, the traditional Property course focuses on a very broad body of laws -- often without any recognizable structure.
For instance, Property covers both personal property (a car, boat, purse, etc.) and real property (land); acquisition of property interests based on find, capture, adverse possession, theft or conversion; the system of land disposition known as Estates in Land, Future Interests and Leasehold Estates, the latter being the foundation of landlord-tenant law. The traditional Property course also concerns the purchase and sale of residential and commercial real property, including land sale contracts, deeds, mortgages, and liens.
The study of Property is also difficult because a number of its modern-day rules have their roots in antiquated, if not arcane, precepts. The historical reasons for these rules must be understood and memorized because the rules often cannot be deduced by logic alone. Accordingly, in this area of law, an ounce of history is sometimes worth a pound of logic.
Law Preview's Top Study Aid Picks For Property . . .
- Brooklyn Law School
- University of Southern California Law School
- George Mason University School of Law
- SMU Dedman School of Law
- Chicago-Kent College of Law—Illinois Institute of Technology
- Fordham University School of Law
- Boston University School of Law
- Southern Illinois University School of Law
- University of Connecticut School of Law
- University of Georgia School of Law