A Liberal Theory of Property Book Review

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2022

Journal

University of Toronto Law Journal

Volume

72

Issue

2

First Page

245

Last Page

250

Abstract

Hanoch Dagan's A Liberal Theory of Property offers, as its title suggests, a strong defense of both the institution of property and classic liberalism's focus on the individual. With law and economics threatening to define property solely in terms of utilitarian calculus, Dagan lays out a vision of property that resists such instrumental reductionism. A liberal system of property rights, Dagan argues, allows for individual autonomy and is valuable independent of the connection between property and larger economic growth. Moreover, by centering the individual, rather than collective, understanding of the good, A Liberal Theory rejects the communitarian critique which would declare the centering of individual autonomy to be a failed experiment. But he liberal subject at the heart of Dagan's vision is not the rugged individual immersed in a web of relations with fellow autonomous individuals.

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