Introduction by Jeremy A. Blumenthal
Is property good for you? Or is it true that money can't buy happiness? Social scientists, and with them legal scholars and policymakers, have begun to (re)turn to an analysis of the relationship between private property and human flourishing. A long tradition of philosophical analysis advises that material goods are integral to proper psychological functioning, while others (and at times those same theorists) argue that such a focus can lead to fetishism and other unhealthy behavior, and even to psychological dysfunction. Only recently, however, has empirical research begun to address this clearly empirical question: what is the relationship between private property or material goods and psychological functioning?
Unfortunately, a dearth of empirical research is largely the case for many areas in which property law raises questions that are amenable to social scientific research. In the present Symposium, legal scholars and psychologists take an interdisciplinary approach to addressing many such questions, reviewing existing empirical studies and presenting new data as well. The Symposium builds on a March 2008 Panel presented at the annual American Psychology/Law Society conference: A Psychological Perspective on Property Law: Current Topics and Future Directions. The goal of the original Panel, and of this Symposium, is to prompt empirical research by social scientists and legal academics in four broad areas with implications for property law, theory, and policy: (1) What benefits emerge from a psychological view of property law, and what questions can the law give to empirical researchers? (2) Does property law reflect lay intuitions, and does empirical research support black-letter law? (3) Are views of property and ownership innate? (4) Are those views malleable; if so, what policy implications might follow from that malleability? I will let the articles speak for themselves, simply highlighting here some of the contributions they make toward addressing these questions and raising more.
About the Author
Jeremy A. Blumenthal. Professor, Syracuse University College of Law. A.B., A.M., Ph.D. (Social Psychology), Harvard University; J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Citation
83 Tul. L. Rev. 601 (2009)