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Foundations of Property Law — Second Edition · Volume I

Foundations of Property Law

Second Edition — A ground-up redevelopment of the property law treatise under the current Real Law Society Press editorial standards

The Second Edition reorganizes Anglo-American property law into a canonical fourteen-Part architecture: foundations and historical development; the concept of property and its classifications; possession and acquisition; estates in land; future interests; concurrent and marital interests; landlord and tenant; servitudes; land-use controls; conveyancing; recording, title, and priority; title assurance; real estate finance; and modern developments. The First Edition remains preserved in the permanent editorial record; no chapters have yet been migrated to the Second Edition.

Edition
Second Edition
Published
2027
Parts
14
Chapters
1 of 36 planned
Read OnlineDownload Complete VolumeHow to Cite This Volume
Contents▾

Volume I

Foundations of Property Law — Second Edition

1 Chapter Published

1 / 36 Complete

Part I

Foundations and Historical Development

The historical arc of Anglo-American property law from feudal tenure through the Statute of Uses, the Wills Act, the American reception, the Restatements, and the modern Uniform Acts.

1 Chapter Published

1 / 2 Complete

Part II

The Concept of Property and Classifications

Property as a legal relation; real, personal, tangible, intangible, and digital property; the doctrine of fixtures.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 2 Complete

No chapters published in this Part yet.

Part III

Possession and Acquisition

Modes of original acquisition: first possession, capture, finders and bailments, gifts, accession, and adverse possession.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 3 Complete

Part IV

Estates in Land

The estate system: fee simple absolute, defeasible fees, life estates, and the doctrine of waste.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 4 Complete

Part V

Future Interests

Future interests in the grantor and in transferees; the Rule Against Perpetuities; class gifts.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 3 Complete

Part VI

Concurrent and Marital Interests

Concurrent estates (tenancy in common, joint tenancy, tenancy by the entirety), marital property regimes, and partition.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 2 Complete

Part VII

Landlord and Tenant

The leasehold estates; tenant and landlord duties; assignments and subleases; termination; the implied warranty of habitability.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 3 Complete

Part VIII

Servitudes — Easements, Covenants, Equitable Servitudes, Licenses

The unified servitudes framework under the Restatement (Third) of Property: easements, real covenants, equitable servitudes, and licenses.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 3 Complete

Part IX

Land Use Controls — Nuisance, Zoning, Takings

The public-law overlay on private property: private and public nuisance, zoning under the police power, and regulatory takings under the Fifth Amendment.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 3 Complete

Part X

Conveyancing — Contracts of Sale and Deeds

Contracts for the sale of land, equitable conversion, marketable title, merger, deeds (delivery, warranties), and title covenants.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 2 Complete

Part XI

Recording, Title, and Priority

Recording acts (race, notice, race-notice), bona fide purchasers, chain of title, wild deeds, estoppel by deed, the shelter rule, and indexing.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 2 Complete

Part XII

Title Assurance

Title insurance, Marketable Title Acts, and abstract-and-opinion practice.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 1 Complete

Part XIII

Real Estate Finance

The promissory note; the mortgage and deed of trust; priority and subordination; foreclosure; redemption; transfers of mortgaged property; installment land contracts; mortgage substitutes; and the secondary mortgage market.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 4 Complete

Part XIV

Modern Developments

Common-interest communities under the Restatement (Third) and UCIOA; digital and intangible property; and Fair Housing and civil-rights overlays.

0 Chapters Published

0 / 2 Complete

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How to Cite This VolumeReal Law Society Press, Foundations of Property Law — Second Edition, Volume I — Foundations of Property Law — Second Edition (2026 ed.), reallawsociety.com/press/series/foundations-of-property-law-second-edition.

Subject Index
  • Air-rights — Ch. 1
  • Airspace, Subsurface, and Natural Resources — Ch. 1 § 1.11
  • American Property Doctrine — Ch. 1 § 1.19
  • Appurtenances — Ch. 1, Ch. 1 § 1.12
  • Bundle-of-rights — Ch. 1
  • Chapter Apparatus — Ch. 1
  • Chapter Summary — Ch. 1
  • Common Misconceptions — Ch. 1 § 1.26
  • Comparative Analysis — Ch. 1 § 1.24
  • Comparative and Practical Analysis — Ch. 1 § 1.24
  • Concept-of-property — Ch. 1
  • Constitutional Dimensions — Ch. 1 § 1.20
  • Constitutional Protections Affecting Real Property — Ch. 1 § 1.20
  • Corporeal and Incorporeal Interests — Ch. 1 § 1.5
  • Doctrinal Transition to Chapter 2 — Ch. 1 § 1.28
  • Due-process — Ch. 1
  • Editorial Note — Ch. 1
  • English Common-Law Origins — Ch. 1 § 1.18
  • Estates in Land — Ch. 1 § 1.6
  • Estates-in-land — Ch. 1
  • Fixtures — Ch. 1, Ch. 1 § 1.9
  • Fixtures, Improvements, and the Vertical Extent of Land — Ch. 1 § 1.9
  • Foundations-of-property-law — Ch. 1
  • Freehold Interests — Ch. 1 § 1.7
  • Freehold-and-nonfreehold — Ch. 1
  • Further Reading — Ch. 1
  • Historical Development — Ch. 1 § 1.17
  • Improvements — Ch. 1, Ch. 1 § 1.10
  • Key Principles — Ch. 1
  • Learning Objectives — Ch. 1
  • Legal and Equitable Title — Ch. 1 § 1.16
  • Legal-and-equitable-title — Ch. 1
  • Mineral-interests — Ch. 1
  • Non-Freehold Interests — Ch. 1 § 1.8
  • Opening Quotation — Ch. 1
  • Ownership — Ch. 1
  • Ownership Versus Possession — Ch. 1 § 1.14
  • Ownership Versus Title — Ch. 1 § 1.15
  • Part-i — Ch. 1
  • Police-power — Ch. 1
  • Possession — Ch. 1
  • Possession, Ownership, and Title — Ch. 1 § 1.13
  • Practical Application — Ch. 1 § 1.27
  • Practical Consequence — Ch. 1 § 1.2
  • Practical Implications — Ch. 1 § 1.25
  • Primary Authorities — Ch. 1
  • Property as a Legal Relation — Ch. 1 § 1.2
  • Property-law — Ch. 1
  • Real-property — Ch. 1
  • Restatement-of-property — Ch. 1
  • Second-edition — Ch. 1
  • Secondary Authorities — Ch. 1
  • Statute-of-frauds — Ch. 1
  • Statute-of-uses — Ch. 1
  • Takings-clause — Ch. 1
  • The Bundle of Rights — Ch. 1 § 1.3
  • The Contested Furnace — Ch. 1 § 1.9
  • The Distinction Between Real and Personal Property — Ch. 1 § 1.4
  • The Due Process Clause — Ch. 1 § 1.22
  • The Estate System — Ch. 1 § 1.6
  • The Historical Development of Real Property — Ch. 1 § 1.17
  • The Legal Definition of Real Property — Ch. 1 § 1.1
  • The Police Power and the Contracts Clause — Ch. 1 § 1.23
  • The Property Lawyer's Analytical Method — Ch. 1 § 1.27
  • The Real–Personal Distinction and Its Consequences — Ch. 1 § 1.4
  • The Takings Clause — Ch. 1 § 1.21
  • Title — Ch. 1
  • Volume-i — Ch. 1
  • Water-rights — Ch. 1

Citation

How to cite this volume

Long form

Real Law Society Press, Foundations of Property Law, Volume I of Foundations of Property Law — Second Edition (Second Edition, 2027).

Short form

Foundations of Property Law (2d ed.) vol. I

Publication history

Editions, revisions, and errata

Prior editions

  • First Edition—2026-01-01Preserved as archived First Edition; canonical URLs, PDFs, EPUBs, citations, and publication history remain unchanged.

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Authority & methodology

Editorial standards governing this volume

Every chapter in Volume I is prepared under the Real Law Society Press editorial framework: the Editorial Constitution, the Canonical Treatise Architecture, the Editorial Manual, the Legal Research Methodology Manual, and the House Style Guide. Primary authorities are cited before Restatement guidance; Restatement guidance is cited before secondary commentary; historical materials are cited where they clarify the doctrinal record.

Scope

Institutional scope notice

This publication is an educational treatise of the Real Law Society Press. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney–client relationship, and does not opine on the law of any particular jurisdiction.

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