We've talked about the "playground constitution" before (and written about it). You know this stuff:
The third constitution is what has been labeled the "popular constitution" that exists, unwritten, in the broader culture. I call this the "playground constitution," embodying rules that a broad swath of the populace believes are part of the legal canon, and which often contain a grain of accuracy but do not capture the nuance of the actual legal rules. For example, "finders keepers, losers weepers," and possession being "nine-tenths of the law."
You snooze, you lose. Whomever smelt it, dealt it. Come on, you have surely experienced it. Even you law mavens have, right? There's all sorts of levels of this stuff, from clients who just "know" that the law says something (when in reality it doesn't - they can't take my property!), or judges who assume that a land use "variance" is some kind of general exception to a development prohibition (it ain't, Your Honor).
In that vein, we were pleased last year when lawprofs Michael Heller and James Salzman published "Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives," a book that, in part, tries to get to the roots of what this thing we call "property" represents, and what it means to "own" something. From whether it is ok to take that last slice of pie, to "reserving" street parking spaces, to more important things like whether it is ok to recline the seat on an airplane. What are the the hidden rules of ownership in your area of operations?
This book is a straightforward read, and appropriate for a range of readers from the seasoned dirt law professional, to the dabbler who wants to have some snappy comeback to other playground lawyers or their HOA president. And a nice companion book to Prof Bart Wilson's ""The Property Species - Mine, Yours, and Human Mind" (which we wrote about here).
Get your copy here or here (we got the audio book for longer drives).
