Monty Python comes to my Property class

[ciroccoj]

Our prof said a while ago that he loves the golden oldies "finders" cases because they're all "straight out of Mary Poppins" - chimney sweeps who find broaches in chimneys, scullery maids who find lockets in the pantry, etc etc. (hee. I typo'd "scullery" as "scully" on the first pass).

So now we're doing real property (land). Our text starts with a couple of quotes:

Let me speak first of those fields where there can be no progress without history. I think the law of real property supplies the readiest example. (Benjamin Cardozo)

"... law of land in countries under the Common Law of England is a 'rubbish heap with has been accumulating for hundreds of of years'." (Justice Riddell)

The first paragraph after the quotes starts, "The relevant rubbish from the rubbish heap of history is as follows:"

And then we enter the land of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I swear I kept hearing Michael Palin's Peasant going on about his anarcho-syndicalist collective to King Arthur as I was reading. It was the only thing that kept me relatively sane.

I love history. But reading this crap was dry as toast. And hearing our prof talk about it today was even worse. In part because he's got laryngitis, so his normally dynamic lecture style was quite muted. But also because... you just can't make a discussion of the common law rules governing the creation of estates in fee simple in the province of Upper Canada (now Ontario) in 1792 anything but soporific as warm milk to a cat in a sun-drenched down comforter.

So. On the agenda today:

1. Property
   
   • 63-77 (skim)
     
   • 102-117
     
   • 117-164 (skim)
     
   • 221-231
     
   • 294-305
     
   • Volume II 1-26
     
   • Volume II 26-26
     
   
   
2. Contracts
   
   • Traynor v. Unum Life
     
   • Harris v. Watson, Stilk v. Myrick
     
   • Raggow v. Scougall
     
   • Stott v. Merit Investment
     
   • Gilbert Steel v. University Construction
     
   • Reiter, "Courts, Consideration, and Common Sense
     
   • Williams v. Roffey Bros
     
   • Foakes v. Beer
     
   • Beer would be really nice right now
     
   
   
3. ADR
   
   • Interviews WebCT lesson, Pt. 2
     
   • pre-interview readings
     
   • contact interview partner
   
   
4. finish costume
   
5. clean kitchen
   
6. laundry
   
7. bread
   
8. e-mail re. Toronto trip
   
9. clear old e-mail
   
10. answer and clear out Alhena PM messages
    
11. answer e-mails
    
12. make Christmas wishlist

Comments

[bear.livejournal.com]

Have you had to read Locke yet? Our property professor *loved* Locke and made us read 20 pages or so. I can't *imagine* reading the whole treatise.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Ohgod. I can't even imagine that. I don't want to.

No, we were briefly told of Locke's idea of property, along with Kant's, Bentham's, and some other guy (whose name I should probably be familiar with before the midterm, because I doubt I'll get full marks for mentioning the "Property Theory of Efficiency-Dude"). But as for Property Theory readings... no. We've mostly stayed in the practical side of the law, and plowed through case after case involving scheming widows, nasty children, illiterate testators, sleazy insurance companies, and crops. Lots and lots and lots of crops.

Lots of crops.

I now hate bread.

[snarkhunter.livejournal.com]

Twenty pages? Huh. I so have no pity for you.

Intro to Philosophy, freshman year of college. TONS of Locke. Fortunately, I remember none of it.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Back atcha: Boethius' "The Consolation of Philosophy". And nary a Coles Notes version to be found.