What is the basis of property rights? In the inaugural episode of our series on Common Law, Professor Richard Epstein of NYU School of Law lays out a few simple principles that govern the acquisition and use of property.

Professor Epstein provides an alternative to the conventional view that property rights are arbitrarily created by the state, and therefore can be changed at will by the state; a few simple rules, he argues, are universal principles of social organization, consistent across time and culture, which form the basis of social gains.

Professor Epstein is the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Professor of Law Emeritus and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago.

As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.

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Related links:

Richard Epstein: Simple Rules for a Complex World
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.ph...

Coursera: Property Law: Part 1 University of Pennsylvania
https://www.coursera.org/learn/americ...

Encyclopedia Britannica: Property Law
https://www.britannica.com/topic/prop...

Thomas Piketty: New thoughts on capital in the twentyfirst century
https://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_pike...