Real Property Ownership Research Articles

Taxation without Indemnification

Whether by reevaluating previously underappreciated factors or by uncovering new source material, historical scholarship occasionally makes immediate and simultaneous interventions in both academic and public-facing conversations.1 Andrew Kahrl's The Black Tax is one such work, and actually accomplishes these two tasks admirably. In the last two decades, scholars have investigated African American ownership of real property in land and homes, as well as the ways that governmental and private actors, policies, and practices have impaired Black people's ability to acquire and accumulate wealth in this country.2 This body of scholarship, alongside the work of public intellectuals, has served to jumpstart discussion around the issue of reparations.3 Prior to the release of Kahrl's illustrious book, however, no one had identified property taxes as lying at the very center of race-based structural inequality.4

Location and marking of cadastral boundaries in Nordic countries

Cadastral boundaries are key components for ordering the ownership of real property by dividing it into territories. This study analyses the similarities and differences in marking cadastral boundaries in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. A case study was conducted by examining legislations, ordinances, guidelines, and other instructions. These are issued by both the respective national governments, and associated agencies responsible for real property formation and demarcation of boundaries, such as, the national cadastral authorities. We describe, analyse, and discuss the visual division between properties, boundary marks, natural features used as real property boundaries, the information on boundaries in national registers, prescriptive rights, and the localization of boundaries in each country. The outcome of the study shows that there are many similarities between the four countries, but also differences. As an example, the materials used for demarcation differ between each country. Furthermore, the party performing the cadastral procedures range from governmental officials to licenced private surveyors. Finally, differences were noted in whether a real property boundary following a river or stream when created will change position if the river or stream changes course over time.

Addressing the rise of inequalities: How relevant is Rawls's critique of welfare state capitalism?

Addressing the rise of inequalities: How relevant is Rawls's critique of welfare state capitalism?

Connecting country and city: The multiple geographies of real property ownership in the US

AbstractIn this review, we bridge recent studies on the political economy of urban and rural real property ownership, focusing on the US. While there are many parallels and interlinkages between urban and rural phenomena, we note that the field generally produces a different literature for each space: one largely about urban housing and another about rural land. We argue that foregrounding their common legal status as “real property” can help develop new and important analyses that unravel the urban/rural binary. Such an approach suggests, for instance, that gentrification and amenity migration are simply urban and rural manifestations of similar underlying dynamics. This awareness also helps enable the search for institutions that connect country and city, such as investors that target real property across multiple geographies. Thus, we broadly outline the points of overlap and divergence between studies of urban and rural real property ownership in order to open up space for more comparative and relational analyses. Finally, we conclude by suggesting two sets of literature that offer resources for unraveling the urban/rural binary: the work of Doreen Massey and Indigenous geographies.

Practical application of the principle of unity of the legal destiny of the land plot and real estate objects located on it

The issue of the rights of real estate owners protection is becoming more and more urgent, since various schemes for the alienation of such objects and the registration of property rights to them are being implemented in practice. This most acutely concerns the issue of legal regulation of land plots on which real estate objects are located. The purpose of this article is to conduct both theoretical and practical analysis of the unity of legal fate of the land plot and located on it real estate objects principle application. The legislation of Ukraine is based on the principle of the unity of the legal fate of the land plot and the real estate located on it, according to which the land plot follows the real estate, such provisions were contained in Art. 28 of the Land Code of Ukraine as amended in 1990; analogous to which are the provisions of Art. 120 of the current Land Code of Ukraine and Art. 377 of the Civil Code of Ukraine. As of today, there is a rule in the Land Code of Ukraine that in case of acquisition of ownership rights to an object of immovable property (a residential building (except for an apartment building), another building or structure), an object of unfinished construction located on a plot of land (except for state lands, communal property), ownership of such a plot of land simultaneously passes from the alienator (previous owner) of such an object to the acquirer of such an object without changing its purpose. In the event that the alienator (previous owner) of such an object owned a share in the right of joint ownership of a land plot, ownership of such a share is transferred to the acquirer of this object. This principle is also followed in judicial practice (in the decisions of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the Supreme Court, and the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court), in particular, in the decisions of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated April 13, 2016 (case No. 6-253цс16), dated October 12, 2016 ( case No 6-2225цс16), dated May 15, 2017 (case No 705/6917/14-ц), resolutions of the Great Chamber of the Supreme Court dated December 5, 2018 (case No 713/1817/16-ц), dated April 3, 2019 (case No 921/158/18), dated October 16, 2019 (case No 164/409/17), dated June 16, 2020 (case No 689/26/17). In judicial practice, there are many cases when, after acquiring ownership of real property, the user of the land plot appeals to the new owner with a claim for the dismantling of the property and the removal of obstacles to the use of the land plot. The thesis that the alienator of real estate, after committing the deed and transferring the rights to the immovable property to the acquirer, can demand from the new owner of the building that it be dismantled and moved in order to release the land plot of the alienator is absolutely untenable. Usually, disputes with such a subject are initiated by the prosecutor's office, ministries and agencies under which state enterprises are subordinated, or in the case of a change in the management bodies of enterprises. Otherwise, the principle of the unity of the legal destiny of the land plot and the real estate objects located on it will be violated. Thus, the fact that the new owner (real estate) does not have the rights to the land it is not a reason for dismantling or otherwise destroying the legally acquired real estate, but on the contrary, the rights to this land by virtue of the above principle should follow such an object.

Restriction of the Right of Ownership of Real Property due to Environment Protection in Light of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland

Nowadays, there is a noticeable trend aimed at ensuring broad protection of the natural environment – both for the sake of preserving biodiversity and the quality of life of the future generations. However, the related activities of public authorities and private entities often involve limiting the rights of property owners. The Polish Constitutional Tribunal has ruled on the conflict between property rights and conservation of nature. The Tribunal has pointed out that the principles of sustainable development require an appropriate balance between environment protection on one hand and social and civilizational development on the other. In accordance with the previous jurisprudence of the Tribunal, the article will present the limits set for the state's environment policy in certain specific areas by the Constitution. It is acceptable to establish mechanisms to control the exploitation of plantings belonging to real property. Property owners may be required to obtain permits for their removal, and in the absence of such permits, they may be punished with forfeiture of timber or a fine. However, it is incompatible with the principle of proportionality and infringes the right of owners by arbitrary restrictions or imposed automatically sanctions, without the possibility of taking into account the circumstances. Moreover, the Tribunal has pointed out that the Constitution does not allow disproportionate narrowing down of the possibility to seek compensation for restrictions in the use of real property for the sake of environment protection. Only the two-year deadline for submitting claims in this respect has been considered too painful – too short and impossible to be reinstated for justified reasons.

Chonse, a real property lease transaction unique to South Korea

This article is a tentative analysis of Korean real property lease transaction system, chonse, a lease with a large sum of the key money deposit and without monthly rent payments. Chonse is the dominant form of lease arrangement used by most middle-class families in Korea without ownership of real property for both principal residences and commercial business places. The author analyzes this unique institution of real estate lease exclusive to South Korea and describes main features and details of it as well as related legal systems. Chonse also has the character of a lending system for the real property owners, where the landlord has the same position of borrowing the money from the tenant and the lending term is the same as the lease period. The tenant as a creditor has the leased property at his/her possession for the term and the tenant has the legal interest not only of a usufructuary right but also of a security right of pledge or collateral. After a brief review of the legal characteristics and roles of chonse in the modern period of development of South Korea, the author critiques the changing role of the chonse system in the modern South Korean society. Continuous economic development, reform of the financial system, globalized lifestyle and home living, and most of all its shrinking and aging population as well as low interest rates and the flourishing of long-term mortgages are all circumstances that need to be taken into account in assessing the implications of the changes taking place with regard to chonse.

Why Black Homeowners are More Likely to be Caribbean American than African American in New York: A Theory of How Early West Indian Migrants Broke Racial Cartels in Housing

Abstract Why are the Black brownstone owners and landlords in Harlem and Brooklyn disproportionately West Indian? For students of housing discrimination, Black West Indian Americans have long presented a quandary. West Indian Americans generally own and rent higher quality housing than African Americans. These advantages began long ago. For example, when racial covenants, that is, restrictions barring certain racial and ethnic groups from owning real property were rife in New York, many West Indians were still able to buy into tony neighborhoods despite the pervasiveness of institutionalized residential segregation. Eschewing more traditional explanations in the civil rights literature, I apply the literature in which racial segregation in real property ownership is conceived as a racialized monopoly in which racial cartels appropriate anti-competitive techniques to monopolize access to real property. Maintaining a racial cartel is dependent on White owners uniformly refusing to sell. Importantly, West Indian realtors were experts at finding defectors, namely Whites willing to break norms of racial exclusivity and sell, in exchange for their ability to extract a premium. West Indian brokers could act in confidence because they had cash-rich clients and were often buying property in trust (de facto if not de jure) for fellow West Indians. In so doing, West Indian brokers in New York were simply replicating techniques that had been utilized by their land-brokering ancestors. I discuss the history that “previews” this period in New York, albeit in a different context: in the British West Indian islands from which the migrants originated. There are repeated instances of Blacks “busting” White monopolies in landownership, throughout the West Indian colonies in contravention of racial norms in the British colonies of who was allowed to own land and where. Upon arrival in New York, West Indians encountered another racial monopoly in real property ownership, namely Northern racial segregation. They essentially transferred the same techniques that they had utilized in the West Indies to break into White neighborhoods in New York.

THEORETICAL ASSESSMENT OF IMPACTS OF PROPERTY RIGHTS ON EXISTING RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM HOUSES

The paper assesses the impacts of property right on low-cost housing and the solutions to address the challenges of property rights on low-cost housing. A literature review is the primary research method on the subject matter to find answers to impacts of property rights on affordable housing. The basis of the study is a general literature review (locally and internationally) published by other researchers on the similar study. The study indicated that enhanced political voice and political accountability has an impact on improving the prospects for secure property rights. Moreover, influence and supports the notion that the rule of law, in providing legal security for property rights, is an enabling condition for economic growth. Furthermore, if governments of developing countries provide real property ownership with clear titles and rights enforceable by law, then poor people will be able to use their assets to obtain credit which can be employed in productive activities, and countries could lever themselves and their poor inhabitants out of poverty. The research will make contribution to type of land reform, which lead to sustainable development through land titling, a reduction in the probability of being evicted, or otherwise losing land rights and provide land users with greater assurance that they will enjoy fruits of their labor and investment, thereby encouraging them to make long-term investments for sustainable use of their properties.

The gender distribution of real property ownership in late medieval Brussels (1356–1460)

AbstractAlthough ownership of real property was crucial to the economic opportunities of medieval urban women, few studies systematically investigate the gender distribution of medieval real property over time. Usingcensiers(rarely used sources), this article approaches this question through a socio-geographical analysis of Brussels. The study finds that, despite the region's egalitarian inheritance laws, female ownership of real property was relatively limited, and it declined during the late Middle Ages. This decrease accelerated during economic crises, and especially affected the property of non-elite women. Further research on the changing economic opportunities of medieval women would benefit from a more explicit discussion of non-labour income sources and social status.

Like a Good Neighbor, Squatters Are There: Property and Neighborhood Stability in the Context of Urban Decline

In declining cities, an abundance of vacant, devalued property, and under–resourced regulatory mechanisms challenge dominant understandings of private ownership of real property as a source of investment and stability for individuals and neighborhoods. Drawing on four years of ethnography and 65 interviews in Detroit, this article finds that, despite the privileged standing of private property in U.S. culture, residents frequently accept or advocate for illegal property use, such as squatting or scrapping. Instead of adhering to the law, residents use a community–embraced norm—an ethos of care—to assess the acceptability of illegal property use, and they do so in order to positively impact the physical and social dynamics of their neighborhoods. The findings of this article highlight the influence of local conditions for how residents perceive property law violations, and call into question the generalizability and applicability of neighborhood improvement strategies that rest on private, legal ownership to induce responsible care.

UBEZPIECZENIE TYTUŁU PRAWNEGO DO NIERUCHOMOŚCI NA PRZYKŁADZIE JEZIOR WYSTĘPUJĄCYCH W OBROCIE CYWILNOPRAWNYM

Real Property Title Insurance in Civil Law Transactions Concerning Lakes Summary The article presents title insurance for civil law transactions involving lakes. The purpose of this insurance is to compensate for financial losses in the event of legal defects relating to the ownership (title) of real property coming to light after the transfer of such ownership. The paper discusses the origins of title insurance, which comes from the USA, and accounts for its rapid development. The issues discussed include the concept of title insurance, its distinguishing features, and the scope of protection it offers. The authors conduct an analysis of a model title insurance for compliance with Polish law. The result they obtain is that this type of insurance meets the requirements imposed by the Polish legal order. They then move on to the applicability of title insurance to transfer of property ownership involving lakes, and show that title insurance can be a significant advantage protecting a buyer’s interests. This is all the more important because the legal disputes which may arise from the transfer of property ownership in civil law involve many aspects, require specialist knowledge, and can be expensive.

Privacy of Public Data

The construct of an information dichotomy has played a defining role in regulating privacy: information deemed private or sensitive typically earns high levels of protection, while lower levels of protection are accorded to information deemed public or non-sensitive. Challenging this dichotomy, the theory of contextual integrity associates privacy with complex typologies of information, each connected with respective social contexts. Moreover, it contends that information type is merely one among several variables that shape people’s privacy expectations and underpin privacy’s normative foundations. Other contextual variables include key actors - information subjects, senders, and recipients - as well as the principles under which information is transmitted, such as whether with subjects’ consent, as bought and sold, as required by law, and so forth. Prior work revealed the systematic impact of these other variables on privacy assessments, thereby debunking the defining effects of so-called private information. In this paper, we shine a light on the opposite effect, challenging conventional assumptions about public information. The paper reports on a series of studies, which probe attitudes and expectations regarding information that has been deemed public. Public records established through the historical practice of federal, state, and local agencies, as a case in point, are afforded little privacy protection, or possibly none at all. Motivated by progressive digitization and creation of online portals through which these records have been made publicly accessible our work underscores the need for more concentrated and nuanced privacy assessments, even more urgent in the face of vigorous open data initiatives, which call on federal, state, and local agencies to provide access to government records in both human and machine readable forms. Within a stream of research suggesting possible guard rails for open data initiatives, our work, guided by the theory of contextual integrity, provides insight into the factors systematically shaping individuals’ expectations and normative judgments concerning appropriate uses of and terms of access to information. Using a factorial vignette survey, we asked respondents to rate the appropriateness of a series of scenarios in which contextual elements were systematically varied; these elements included the data recipient (e.g. bank, employer, friend,.), the data subject, and the source, or sender, of the information (e.g. individual, government, data broker). Because the object of this study was to highlight the complexity of people’s privacy expectations regarding so-called public information, information types were drawn from data fields frequently held in public government records (e.g. voter registration, marital status, criminal standing, and real property ownership). Our findings are noteworthy on both theoretical and practical grounds. In the first place, they reinforce key assertions of contextual integrity about the simultaneous relevance to privacy of other factors beyond information types. In the second place, they reveal discordance between truisms that have frequently shaped public policy relevant to privacy. For example, • Ease of accessibility does not drive judgments of appropriateness. Thus, even when respondents deemed information easy to access (marital status) they nevertheless judged it inappropriate (“Not OK”) to access this information under certain circumstances.• Even when it is possible to find certain information in public records, respondents cared about the immediate source of that information in judging whether given data flows were appropriate. In particular, no matter that information in question was known to be available in public records, respondents deemed inappropriate all circumstances in which data brokers were the immediate source of information. • Younger respondents (under 35 years old) were more critical of using data brokers and online government records as compared with the null condition of asking data subjects directly, debunking conventional wisdom that “digital natives” are uninterested in privacy. One immediate application to public policy is in the sphere of access to records that include information about identifiable or reachable individuals. This study has shown that individuals have quite strong normative expectations concerning appropriate access and use of information in public records that do not comport with the maxim, “anything goes.” Furthermore, these expectations are far from idiosyncratic and arbitrary. Our work calls for approaches to providing access that are more judicious than a simple on/off spigot. Complex information ontologies, credentials of key actors (i.e. sender and recipients in relation to data subject), and terms of access – even lightweight ones – such as, identity or role authentication, varying privilege levels, or a commitment to limited purposes may all be used to adjust public access to align better with legitimate privacy expectations. Such expectations should be systematically considered when crafting policies around public records and open data initiatives.

Why Black Homeowners are More Likely to Be Caribbean-American than African-American in New York: A Theory of How Early West Indian Migrants Broke Racial Cartels in Housing

Why are the black brownstone owners in Harlem and Brooklyn disproportionately West Indian? The landlords, West Indian-American? The tenants African-American? These are tough questions. For students of housing discrimination, West Indian Americans have long presented a quandary. If it is reasonable to assume that racial exclusions are being consistently applied to persons who are dark-skinned, one would expect to find that housing discrimination has had similar effects on West Indian-Americans and African-Americans. Yet this is not the case: West Indian-Americans generally own and rent higher quality housing than African-Americans. Moreover, these advantages began long ago. For example, when racial covenants, that is, restrictions barring racial and ethnic groups from owning real property in particular neighborhoods were rife in New York, they were not consistently applied against West Indians, who were sometimes able to buy into tony neighborhoods. While it is true that such covenants were also inconsistently applied against other ethnic and religious groups such as Jewish New Yorkers, West-Indians still stand out. Since West Indians are overwhelmingly dark-skinned persons of African descent they typically did not have the option of passing that may have been available to other groups. Eschewing more traditional explanations in the civil rights literature, I apply the literature in which racial segregation in real property ownership is conceived as a racial monopoly in which racial cartels appropriate anti-competitive techniques to monopolize access to real property. Maintaining a racial cartel is dependent on white owners maintaining a united front, that is, they must uniformly refuse to sell. Importantly, realtors play a gate keeping role in real estate and West Indians dominated the realtor sector. As realtors, they were expert at finding defectors, namely, whites willing to break norms of racial exclusivity, in exchange for their ability to extract a premium for selling to blacks early. Brokers then proceeded to buy significant numbers of titles, which were then off-loaded to fellow West Indians. West Indian brokers could act in confidence because they had cash-rich clients and were often buying in trust (de facto if not de jure) for fellow West Indians. In so doing, West Indian brokers in New York were simply replicating techniques that had been utilized by their land-brokering ancestors. I discuss the history that previews this period in New York, albeit in a different context: in the British West Indian islands from the migrants originated. There are repeated instances of blacks busting white monopolies in land-ownership, throughout the West Indian colonies in contravention of racial norms in the British colonies of who was allowed to own land where. Upon arrival in New York, West Indians encountered another racial monopoly in real property ownership, namely Northern racial segregation. They essentially appropriated the same techniques that they had utilized in the West Indies to break into white neighborhoods in New York.

Are PILOTs property taxes for nonprofits?

Nonprofit charitable organizations are exempt from most taxes, including local property taxes, but U.S. cities and towns increasingly request that nonprofits make payments in lieu of taxes (known as PILOTs). Strictly speaking, PILOTs are voluntary, though nonprofits may feel pressure to make them, particularly in high-tax communities. Evidence from Massachusetts indicates that PILOT rates, measured as ratios of payments to the value of local tax-exempt property, are higher in towns with higher property tax rates: a one percentage point higher property tax rate is associated with a 0.2 percentage point higher PILOT rate. PILOTs appear to discourage nonprofit activity: a one percentage point higher PILOT rate is associated with 0.8% lower real property ownership by local nonprofits, 0.2% lower total assets, and 0.2% lower revenues of local nonprofits. These patterns are consistent with voluntary PILOTs acting in a manner similar to low-rate, compulsory real estate taxes.

점유취득시효에 있어서 등기명의인의 민사책임과 관련한 법적 쟁점

이 논문의 제목은 점유취득시효에 있어서 등기명의인의 민사책임과 관련한 법적 쟁점이라고 하였다. 장래에 어떠한 문제가 발생할 것인지를 현재의 시점에서 정확하게 예측할 수는 없지만, 그것이 사회질서를 규율하는 법 제도라고 한다면 불합리한 결과가 발생되지 않도록 그 위험성을 최소화할 수 있는 방법이 모색되어야 한다. 이와 관련하여 현행 민법 제245조(점유로 인한 부동산소유권의 취득기간)는 “(1) 20년간 소유의 의사로 평온, 공연하게 부동산을 점유하는 자는 등기함으로써 그 소유권을 취득한다. (2) 부동산의 소유자로 등기한 자가 10년간 소유의 의사로 평온, 공연하게 선의이며 과실 없이 그 부동산을 점유한 때에는 소유권을 취득한다.”라고 규정하고 있다. 현행 민법이 부동산물권변동에 있어서 형식주의를 취하고 있으면서 등기부 취득시효와 점유취득시효를 인정하고 있지만, 특히 점유취득시효를 인정함에 있어서는 의사주의를 채택하고 있는 국가의 민법과 달리 그 요건으로서 등기를 요구하도록 관련규정을 마련하고 있다는 점에서 차이가 있다. 본고는 종래에 점유취득시효와 관련하여 적지 않은 법적 문제점들이 발생하고 있다는 점을 고려하여, 점유취득시효제도 중에서 특히 부동산 점유취득시효제도와 관련한 다양한 쟁점 중에서 우선 제도적 존재이유를 어떠한 시각에서 파악하여야 되는지를 살펴보고, 특히 당해 부동산의 등기명의인의 채무불이행책임, 불법행위책임 등의 민사책임이 인정되는 요건과 관련한 판례입장을 살펴보고, 어떠한 경우에 민사책임이 배제될 수 있는지 등과 관련한 몇 가지 쟁점에 대하여 관련 쟁점과 그 개선방안을 검토하였다.

Further modelling of LADM's rights, restrictions and responsibilities (RRRs)

This paper proposes a more detailed classification of the legal part of the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM), ISO 19152 (i.e. interests in land), than described in the current standard by further developing the LADM's ‘right’, ‘restriction’ and ‘responsibility’ (RRR) class and associated code lists.Besides the more obvious formal right descriptions, this paper also deals with informal rights’ descriptions as introduced in the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) as a foundation for further LADM development.The authors base their research on the Legal Cadastral Domain Model, as developed by and described in the Ph.D. thesis of Paasch, which is used as a conceptual basis for adding an additional level to the LADM. Interests in land can be classified in this model as limiting or beneficial to real property ownership. The extended classification is further based on the paradigm that there are two major types of interest in land, privately agreed interests and regulations imposed by a public agency.The incorporation of a specialized classification of RRRs in the LADM is of value for more inclusion of social tenure in (inter-)national land administration registers. The LADM allows national profiles to be added to the standard, however, such profiles are relevant within a country. These profiles are needed in cases where detailed data of interests in land have to be exchanged internationally. International data exchange requires maintenance of code tables representing the different RRRs in use within countries. OICRF has announced an initiative in support to this.

Using Historic Preservation Laws to Halt the Destruction of 'Porch Culture' in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans

One Saturday in May, 2014, I visited the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans with a group of my law students. The students had spent Monday through Friday volunteering with pro bono legal service providers throughout the City as part of the Law School’s annual mission trip and were going to spend that Saturday working on some rebuilding projects in the Lower Ninth Ward — an area that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and was still struggling to rebound. While shuttling students between job sites, I was shocked to see a number of newly built houses that looked as if they had been dropped from outer space into the middle of the “Lower Nine.” They had oddly angled roofs with solar panels, swooping overhangs, and, in some cases, the entryways were more than a story above ground. I later learned that these houses had been built by actor Brad Pitt’s organization, Make It Right. They seemed to me to be grotesque caricatures of the Greek revival, Italianate, Creole cottages, and shotgun houses that had previously occupied the landscape. My sentiments were echoed by those of experts who had also made post-Katrina pilgrimages to the Lower Ninth Ward to observe or participate in rebuilding efforts. One architect recounted his dismay: When I visited New Orleans last fall, there was no way to prepare myself for the despair I felt when walking through the Lower 9th Ward, even 6 years after the storm . . . . A vacuum of leadership at every level has left the task of “salvation” to celebrities, and their private celebrity architects — with projects that are an exercise of vanity over practicality. What was most dismaying was seeing “celebrity architecture” masquerading as sustainable housing . . . . Are we seriously expected to believe that a handful of LEED houses will somehow create a template for the future, even while the architecture itself destroys the porch culture that formerly characterized the close-knit social life of the neighborhood? Whose intentions are really more important? I would add to the speaker’s questions an additional one: once the more important intentions are identified, how might historic preservation law aid in effectuating those intentions? In Part I of this Article, I argue that rebuilding approaches like Make It Right’s — approaches that admittedly seek to “change the way buildings are designed and built” — often fail to adhere to cultural and historical norms. This failure misses an opportunity to preserve the history of a community — one of the essential functions of historic preservation. In advocating for a larger role for historic preservation law in post-disaster rebuilding, I also explore the history of the Ninth Ward, the nature of pre-Katrina activism in this predominantly African-American community, and the role of place and space in that activism, as typified by the role of the front porch and the development of “porch culture.” I explore these issues by harkening back to the roots of African American homeownership in New Orleans — roots that extend to the legacy of real property ownership established by antebellum free women of color. In Part III of this Article, I examine the City of New Orleans’s current historic preservation mechanisms and posit that in instances of complete destruction or widespread devastation, existing historic preservation ordinances and processes must apply not just to pre-designated historic districts, but also to entire neighborhoods. I argue that such a regulatory scheme is necessary to maintain neighborhood integrity in the face of widespread destruction, such as that wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Acquisition of ownership of real property by contract in Serbian law: Departing from the titulus-modus system?

This paper examines the systems of contractual acquisition of ownership of real property in various civil law jurisdictions. It then presents Serbian legislative solutions in that respect, commonly denoted as titulus-modus system. It particularly emphasizes recent departures from the traditional system in respect of acquisition of ownership of real property in the current practice of Serbian courts and in recent legislation. These developments seem to indicate a certain shift towards a system of conveyance effect of the contract itself, resembling in some aspects the French law. This development is subjected to critical analysis, the conclusion of which is that there needs to be a consistent application of a chosen system, once it is chosen. Finally, the author proposes a solution that would achieve such goal and increase the level of legal certainty.

The Immigration Hotel

The image of a hotel with each floor representing different immigration statuses provides a way to introduce students to the confounding immigration system we have in the United States, on both technical and policy levels. The imagery of the hotel helps to explain how one gets into the immigration hotel (the admissions process), and also how one gets kicked out (through various forms of removal proceedings). Analogies to different forms of eviction allow for parallels as well, depending on the nature of the building in question (e.g. hotel room, apartment, or condo) and the legal status of the person being removed (temporary traveler, renter/lease holder, home owner). Drawing on property law also allows for different floors to represent different types of immigration status. In a nutshell, citizenship occupies the top floor and is akin to cooperative or condominium ownership. Legal permanent residency occupies the apartment floor, with occupants tied to leases with strict terms. Breaking the terms of the lease can lead to eviction (i.e., deportation). Traditional hotel rooms are reserved for temporary non-immigrant visa holders. Sandwiched on a hard-to-get-to floor between the apartments and the hotel rooms is the sanctuary: a place for refugees, survivors of crimes and human trafficking, unaccompanied children, and those stranded in the US as the result of natural and human made disasters in their homelands. The lobby serves not only as the admissions entry point, but also as a place of legal limbo (sort of like an easement), where people are sometime allowed to hangout for years on end in renewable quasi-status like parole and deferred action. Finally, the basement holds those without status – either they never had it, by entering unauthorized at an unregulated entry point; or those who entered legally but have violated their terms of status. The cellar or dungeon is immigration detention. The building analogy proves durable – both on the surface as an explanatory heuristic (e.g., “citizenship is like ownership”) and as a way to explore the history behind immigration categories (e.g., who has been entitled to citizenship mirrors who has been entitled to own real property). Parallels between the history of property real ownership and its protection (through the use of restrictive covenants) and the history of immigration regulation (such as the Chinese Exclusion Acts) illustrate how the analogy can also do more than just explain the current operation of immigration law, but illuminate how the laws came into being in larger historical context. Racial and economic barriers to real property ownership and control are often paralleled in the immigration hotel – the poor and marginalized often face high challenges to securing immigration status as well as stable and living situations.