The Property-Contract Interface Historical and Theoretical Perspectives

by Penner, James; Sakharova, Irina; Smith, Henry E.; Tan, Zhong Xing

• ISBN13: 9780198951988
• ISBN10: 0198951981
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780198952008
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2026-10-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Author Biography

James Penner, Kwa Geok Choo Professor of Property Law, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore,Irina Sakharova, Assistant Professor in Commercial Law, Durham University,Henry E. Smith, Fessenden Professor of Law, Harvard Law School,Zhong Xing Tan, Associate Professor of Law, National University of Singapore

James Penner is Kwa Geok Choo Professor of Property Law at the National University of Singapore. He formerly taught at Brunel University, the London School of Economics, King's College London, and University College London. He is one of the world's leading scholars in the philosophy of property and the law of trusts, and writes more widely in the areas of private law and the philosophy of law. He has been a visiting professor at a number of universities around the world, most recently the University of Toronto, Harvard University and the Centre for Transnational Legal Studies in London.


Irina Sakharova is an Assistant Professor in Commercial Law at Durham University. Her research is situated in private law and legal philosophy, and most centrally in contract law and contract theory. She has published in these areas, including in such journals as Ratio Juris and the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence. Dr Sakharova earned her MJur degree from the University of Oxford and her PhD at the National University of Singapore. Her PhD thesis, Understanding the Legal Power to Contract, was awarded the Wang Gungwu Medal and Prize for the Best PhD Thesis in the Social Sciences and Humanities.


Henry E. Smith is Fessenden Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he directs the Project on the Foundations of Private Law. Previously, Professor Smith taught at the Northwestern University School of Law and was the Fred A. Johnston Professor of Property and Environmental Law at Yale Law School. He has served as the President of the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics and is the Reporter for the American Law Institute's Fourth Restatement of Property. He has published widely in the areas of property, equity, and private law theory.


Zhong Xing Tan is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, Director of the Sheridan Fellowship Programme, and a member of the Leadership Team at NUS Law. Dr Zhong Xing's research and teaching interests are in contract law, private law and legal theory. His work has been published in general and specialist law journals including the Modern Law Review, Cambridge Law Journal, University of Toronto Law Journal, and the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, and has been cited by apex courts in different jurisdictions. Zhong Xing's awards and recognitions include the Hart Publishing Prize for the best paper by an early career scholar at the Ninth Biennial Conference on the Law of Obligations (2018), and previously, Harvard Law School's Project on the Foundations of Private Law Prize (2017).

Table of Contents

I. The Nature of Property and Contract1. Private Rights: Artificial But Not Instrumental, Rebecca Stone2. When Contract Makes Property, Aditi Bagchi3. Property, Contract, and Normative Powers, Irina SakharovaII. Property, Contract, and the Structure of Private Law4. Combining Property and Contract, Henry E. Smith5. The Basic Stuff of Private Law, Nick Sage6. Restrictive Covenants, Robert Chambers7. Bilateral Broadcasting and the Foundations of Private Law, Zhong Xing Tan8. Towards a Legal Analysis of Externalities, Richard R. W. BrooksIII. Institutions Along the Property-Contract Interface9. Bailment and the 'Three Body Problem', Katy Barnett10. The Property/Contract Interface: Hybrid Leases, Thomas W. Merrill11. The Nature of the Interest of an Object of Trust or Power, Lusina Ho12. Intermediate Rights-Bridging the Theory/Doctrine Divide, Lee Pey Woan and Zhang WeiIV. Contract and Conveyance13. Property and Contract in the Development of the Sale of Goods: Views of the Victorians, Catharine MacMillan14. Properties of Debt: History and Analysis, Joshua GetzlerV. Contract, Property, and Beyond15. Are Choses in Action Property?, William Swadling16. Having, Doing, Owing, Larissa Katz17. Cash and Credit: Money and the Property-Contract Interface, James Penner