Land, property and environment

The course will introduce land, environment and property in socio-legal theory and political philosophy through writers such as Locke, Marx, Lefebvre, Harvey, Castells, Ostrom and de Soto. The approach will cross academic disciplines (sociology and law but also history, geography, surveying and planning), and include practice within the professions of land and environment (lawyers, land surveyors, valuers and planners). The course will explore dimensions of human rights in relation to land and property, including issues of environment, landscape, and eco-habitats. Different forms of land tenure will be investigated (viz. private property, communal/customary/ethnic, state, and religious/charitable), and institutional arrangements for land governance, including dispute resolution mechanisms.