Professor Christopher Essert has received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant to write a property law book from a legal-philosophical perspective. The work, funded by an award of $85,100 over five years, will aim to show what property law is and how it is justified as a necessary institution in a society of equals.  

“Since I started teaching property, I have found the subject to involve a wide range of really interesting and important questions,” says Essert, “but lots of these questions have, for various reasons, been left unanswered.” 

How does one become the owner of something? What kinds of things can one own? What rights do owners have against others? “Each question is very important on its own,” he explains, “but they are also deeply related to all kinds of other legal, political and moral questions so a justification and explanation of property is important.”

The work will be of particular interest to those who work within the field. Essert primarily wants to “help other property theorists, and those working on issues relating to property law more generally, to see the possibility of a different way of thinking about property law than the more prominent views.” 

However, some of the book will have practical application as well. Parts relate to important issues such as the relationship of property law to homelessness and the use of public space, and the justification of intellectual property rights. “I am hopeful that the research will be taken up by those working on more practical aspects of those fields,” Essert adds. 

Under the grant, the majority of the funds will be used to hire students to research various areas of the law of property within Canada and around the world, and also potentially to offer a fellowship to a graduate student who will want to work in the area. Additionally, Essert hopes to attract a group of property theorists from around the world by hosting a workshop on the book manuscript at Queen’s. “Such a workshop would give faculty and students at Queen’s a unique opportunity to meet these important scholars,” he says. 

Essert wishes to thank the Law Faculty, his students and his fellow professors, and Diane Davies of Queen’s University Research Services for their support. “I’m particularly grateful to my colleagues Art Cockfield (Law’93) and Michael Pratt, each of whom read my application and gave some really helpful feedback that, I feel, was crucial in the application’s success.” 

By Michael Adams