Law's Limits
Rule of Law and the Supply and Demand of Rights

This 2002 book demonstrates how property law and rights shift and cycle in the US.

Neil K. Komesar (Author)

9780521000864, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 10 December 2001

220 pages, 3 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.4 x 1.5 cm, 0.307 kg

"Using the context of supply and demand, Komesar affers an analysis of rights in general and property rights in particular in the demand for and supply of the limited resources of law and the courts....For readers interested in a more provocative approach to understanding the nexus between law and society, this book will prove illuminating. Graduate level and above." Choice

What law is can be determined by the character of the institutions that make, interpret and enforce law. The interaction of these institutions moulds the supply of, and demand for, law. Focusing on this interaction in the context of US property rights law and the debates about private property and the rule of law, Komesar paints an unconventional picture of law and rights shifting and cycling as systemic factors, such as increasing numbers and complexity. This strain produces tough institutional choices and unexpected combinations of goals and institutions. It also frustrates the hopes for courts, rights and law embodied in notions such as the rule of law and constitutionalism. Although there may be an important role for law, rights and courts both in the US and abroad, it cannot be easily defined. This 2002 book proposes a way to define that role and to reform legal education and legal analysis.

Preface
Part I. The Basic Framework: 1. Supply and demand
2. The spectrum of rights
3. The supply side - the little engine of law and rights
Part II. Land Use and Rights: 4. Zoning and its discontents - political malfunction and the demand for rights
5. Just compensation - the problems of pricing
6. High stakes players and hidden markets
Part III. Law's Laws: 7. Theories of property: from Coase to communitarianism
8. Numbers, complexity and the rule of law
9. Changes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & general issues [LA], Politics & government [JP], Sociology & anthropology [JH]