How Equity and Custom Transformed American Waste Law
Charlotte School of Law Property Law Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, p. 1 (2015)
53 Pages Posted: 12 Sep 2023
Date Written: May 15, 2011
Abstract
The article shows that US state courts transformed property law involving waste of land by relying on English equitable or customary law, often in favor of sympathetic plaintiffs, between the Revolutionary War and roughly 1820. The paper casts as incorrect Morton Horwitz’s celebrated view that American courts departed from English common law in property cases. The paper also demonstrates how American courts innovated English remedies law not by overturning English precedent but by relying on English precedent in the name of vulnerable plaintiffs in the US.
Keywords: property, land, chancery, patriotism, country, waste law, tenant, landlord, waste, conscience, custom, contract, common law, equity, land use
JEL Classification: K11, K12
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation