At Harvard Law School, students learn from leading scholars about how scarce resources are used, who controls them, and how entitlements to them are distributed, structured, and transferred. What we can own, what would be better left unowned, and what is immoral for us to own – these ideas make all the difference as to where we can live, what we can say, and whether we have any freedom at all. In our society, decisions at the level of entitlements – the relations of persons with respect to their rights to resources – lie at the root of our market economy and determine whether we can participate on equal terms in society.
By studying property, students are better equipped to engage with a wide range of areas, including bankruptcy, commercial law, corporate law, environmental law, family law, natural resources, nonprofits, and taxation. The study of property can encompass housing law, zoning, federal public lands, intellectual property rights like copyrights and patents, official records of various kinds of rights, legislative and constitutional antidiscrimination laws, and constitutional provisions relating to takings. Property thus introduces the interplay and intertwining of the public and private.
From Harvard Law Today
Faculty
HLS Professors
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Maureen Brady
Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law
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Esme Caramello
Clinical Professor of Law
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Charles Donahue
Paul A. Freund Professor of Law
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William W. Fisher
WilmerHale Professor of Intellectual Property Law
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Duncan M. Kennedy
Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence, Emeritus
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Richard J. Lazarus
Charles Stebbins Fairchild Professor of Law
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Kenneth W. Mack
Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law
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Frank I. Michelman
Robert Walmsley University Professor, Emeritus
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Steven M. Shavell
Samuel R. Rosenthal Professor of Law and Economics
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Joseph W. Singer
Bussey Professor of Law
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Robert H. Sitkoff
Austin Wakeman Scott Professor of Law
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Henry E. Smith
Fessenden Professor of Law
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Kristen A. Stilt
Professor of Law
Visiting Professors & Lecturers
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David J. Barron
Louis D. Brandeis Visiting Professor of Law
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Daniel Farbman
Visiting Associate Professor of Law
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Havva Guney-Ruebenacker
Lecturer on Law
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Chris Mirasola
Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law
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Alexa Rosenbloom
Lecturer on Law
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Patricio S. Rossi
Lecturer on Law
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Hassaan Shahawy
Lecturer on Law
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Alain Laurent Verbeke
Visiting Professor of Law
Clinics
Housing Law Clinic
Transactional Law Clinics
Research Programs and Centers
Related Courses
Course | Term | Instructor(s) |
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Animal Law | Spring 2024 Course | Kristen Stilt |
Community Enterprise Project of the Transactional Law Clinics | Fall 2023 Clinic | Noel Roycroft |
Community Enterprise Project of the Transactional Law Clinics | Spring 2024 Clinic | Brian Price |
Economic Analysis of Law | Fall 2023 Course | Steven Shavell |
Local Government Law | Fall 2023 Course | Daniel Farbman |
Private Law Workshop | Fall 2023 Seminar | Henry Smith, Maureen Brady |
Property 1 | Fall 2023 Course | Bruce Mann |
Property 2 | Spring 2024 Course | Kenneth Mack |
Property 3 | Fall 2023 Course | Maureen Brady |
Property 4 | Fall 2023 Course | Henry Smith |