Partition and Revelation
81 University of Chicago Law Review 27 (2014)
University of Chicago Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper No. 681
Kreisman Working Papers Series in Housing Law and Policy No. 15
43 Pages Posted: 19 Apr 2014 Last revised: 25 Jun 2015
Date Written: April 18, 2014
Abstract
Judicial partition works like a private taking, yet it has been under-theorized. Existing literature has focused on partition in kind and partition by sale, while ignoring intermediate partition approaches like partial partition that are prevalent in practice. Little attention has been given to the use of revelation mechanisms such as self-assessment, nor to how judicial partition rules cast a shadow on co-owners’ pre-judicial-partition behaviors. This Essay addresses these shortfalls and enriches the debate on the efficiency of legal rules governing partition. Our primary contributions include bringing partial partition into the theoretical framework and proposing new self-assessment-based partition rules that can extract information about co-owners’ valuations without creating distortions in co-owner behavior.
Keywords: partition, partition in kind, partition by sale, partial partition, revelation mechanism, auctions, self-assessment, owelty, subjective premium, economy of scale, land use
JEL Classification: K10, K11, K40, K41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation