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Leading Experts to Debate the Evolution of Property Rights
CHICAGO -- More than 30 experts in law and economics
and property rights will discuss Harold Demsetz’s influential
article "Toward a Theory of Property Rights" at the Fourth
Annual Faculty Conference Saturday and Sunday, April 21 and 22, at
Northwestern University School of Law.
Free and open to the public, the conference, titled "The
Evolution of Property Rights," will begin each day at 9 a.m.
at the Law School, 375 E. Chicago Ave.
Leading commentators from U.S. law schools and universities
across the country will present papers and comment on rival hypotheses
that explain changes in property rights over time. Demsetz will present
and discuss his paper, which sets forth a simple economic framework
for understanding the evolution of property rights, at the end of
the conference on Sunday.
The conference will include both critiques and extensions
of the initial Demsetz hypothesis, according to Thomas W. Merrill,
conference organizer and John Paul Stevens Professor of Law at Northwestern.
"Although knowledge of the Demsetz prospective has
gradually permeated economics departments and law schools, it is
far from universal," he said. "Some commentators remain
unconvinced."
Merrill, who will moderate the discussion of Demsetz’s
paper, has done research on property law, constitutional protection
of property rights, administrative law and judicial decision-making.
He served as deputy solicitor general in the U.S. Department of Justice
from 1987 to 1990.
Other conference organizers include Northwestern University
School of Law faculty David D. Haddock and Henry E. Smith, who will
present papers and moderate discussions.
Haddock is professor of law and economics at the Law
School and a senior associate of the Political Economic Research
Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Mont. He is a specialist in law and economics,
economic history, economic geography and industrial organization.
He has written numerous articles for books and professional journals.
Smith, associate professor of law at Northwestern, is
a specialist in contracts, property, taxation and law and economics.
For more information and a complete conference schedule,
please go to http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/communicate/newspages/spring01/property.htm
4/4/01
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