Dirt Law

A short one from the Supreme Court of Guam (long opinion, but short post), which reversed a trial court ruling that awarded title to the land beneath a wastewater treatment plant to a private owner, holding that the property was never conveyed out of public ownership and remains with the Guam Waterworks Authority. The opinion in Gov’t of Guam v. Core Tech Int’l Corp., No CVA24-007 (Guam, Aug. 2, 2026), is mostly about “dirt law” stuff, like the effect of Torrens title registration, the after-acquired title doctrine, and ancestral land claims. But there’s also a kernel of inverse condemnation goodness making this one worth a read.
Continue Reading Owner Does Not Actually Own Disputed Property, But That Doesn’t Affect The Takings Claim

You are no doubt familiar with the “property is a bundle of sticks” metaphor. For nearly a century, private property rights have been described as a “bundle of sticks,” with each stick representing a distinct right associated with the ownership of property: the right to possess it, to exclude others, to use, alienate, and develop it, and so on. The metaphor is common parlance — but is it truly a good way to actually capture what this thing called “private property” means?
Recently, Pacific Legal Foundation and the George Mason Law Review gathered judges, scholars, practitioners, and students at the Law School for a symposium to try to shed some light on that question…
Continue Reading “Unpacking Private Property’s Bundle of Sticks” Symposium Report

Check this out, a new (to us, at least) article from lawprof Adam J. MacLeod, “Vested Rights and the Presumption of Lawful Use,” 2 Tex. A & M J. of Law & Civil Governance (2026). See if reading the Abstract doesn’t make you want to read the entire piece…
Continue Reading New(ish) Article: Adam J. MacLeod, “Vested Rights and the Presumption of Lawful Use,” 2 Tex. A & M J. of Law & Civil Governance (2026)

The latest naming kerfuffle, in which the established name of that body of water separating Toronto from upstate New York has been summarily changed to Lake America (at least on this side of the border) got us to thinking back to a book review we did a number of years ago.
Continue Reading Make Great Lakes Great Again: You Call It “Potato,” We Call It Lake America

Time to sign up for the upcoming “Unpacking Private Property’s Bundle of Sticks” Symposium, sponsored by our shop and George Mason Law Review. September 15, 2026, 12:15 – 5:45 p.m., Arlington, Virginia. …
Continue Reading Register Now For “Unpacking Private Property’s Bundle of Sticks” Symposium (PLF & GMU Law Review) (Sep. 15, 2026)

It’s that time of the year again. Fall’s-a-coming, and that means that in a few days, we’re back at the William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia to teach two courses: Eminent Domain and Property Rights (W&M is one of the few law schools in the country that offer a course in eminent domain, just compensation, and takings) -and Land Use Controls (an especially hot topic at the moment).
Continue Reading Back To School For Dirt Law @ William & Mary, Season 9

As the caption of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit’s opinion in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Inc. v. Reynolds, No. 25-1750 (Apr. 23, 2026), might indicate, this is a case about animal-rights activists coming onto property to video the goings-on.

Iowa had already criminalized certain trespasses: entering or…

Yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court’s 8-1 decision in Havana Docks Corp. v. Royal Carribean Cruises, Ltd., No. 24-983 (May 22, 2026) involves a taking without compensation (although not the type of taking we usually discuss here) by the then-new communist government of Cuba. But it does give us some insight to how the Court views property. In this case, the term “property” as defined in a federal statute creating a private right of action against someone who traffics in property seized by the Cuban communist government after the 1959 revolution. …
Continue Reading Usufruct That! Some Clues On How SCOTUS Views Property As “Physical Things” And Not Just Sticks Or Interests

Yesterday (yes, April Fool’s Day), we returned to William and Mary Law School to help the student-run Real Estate Law Society wrap up its event year. The putative title of our talk was “Hot Topics in Property Law”, but we covered a wider range, including Dirt Law issues to be on the lookout for at the Supreme Court, a century of zoning, career paths in property law (litigation, transactional, academic, for example, and what the hiring market looks like), and some general musings. …
Continue Reading William & Mary Law School’s Real Estate Law Society

Check out this cert petition filed yesterday. It’s from our shop, so we’re not going to be commenting much. The issue is one that the Supreme Court has expressed an interest in, but the last time it was before the Court a few years ago, the Justices decided to wait for the next case. Well, here’s the next case.
Continue Reading New Cert Petition: Do Indian Tribes Have Greater Sovereign Immunity Than Other Governments?